*' 


" 


BUDDHISM 

AND 

ITS  CHRISTIAN  CRITICS 


BY 

DR.  PAUL  CARUS 


!  Love  took  up  the  harp  of  life  and  smote  on  all 

the  chords  with  might ; 

Smote  the  chord  of  self,  that,  trembling,  passed 
in  music  out  of  sight." 

TENNYSON,  Locksley  Hall. 


NEW  AMD  REVISED  EDITION" 


CHICAGO 
THE   OPEN    COURT    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

LONDON  AGENTS:  KEGAN  PAUL,  TRENCH,  TRUBNER  &  Co. 
1905 


COPYRIGHT,  i8c4,  1893,  1896,  1897, 

Bv  THE  OPEN  COURT  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 

CHICAGO   U.  S.  A. 


COflTElSTS. 


PAGE 

PREFACE 5 

PREFACE  TO  TIIII.  REVISED  EDITION 11 

THE  ORIGIN  OF  BUDDHISM 13 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  BUDDHISM 39 

THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM 85 

THE  BASIC  CONCEPTS  OF  BUDDHISM 128 

BUDDHISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY 166 

CHRISTIAN  CRITICS  OF  BUDDHISM 237 

CONCLUSION  •  '  ,  308 


20C5GS3 


PREFACE. 


COMPARISON  is  the  best  method  of  acquiring  com- 
prehension ;  and  comprehension  involves  both  the 
discrimination  of  contrasts  and  the  recognition  of 
similarities.  Differences  are  upon  the  whole  at 
once  apparent  while  similarities  are  hidden;  but 
the  import  of  differences  can,  at  the  same  time,  not 
be  appreciated  until  the  similarities  are  seen.  Thus, 
the  discovery  that  the  course  of  the  moon  and  the 
fall  of  a  stone  are  both  phenomena  of  gravitation, 
becomes  significant  only  when  the  difference  of  both 
phenomena  can  be  traced  to  a  difference  of  conditions. 

For  this  reason  every  religious  man  should  study 
other  religions  in  order  to  understand  his  own  re- 
ligion ;  and  he  must  try  to  trace  conscientiously 
and  lovingly  the  similarities  in  the  various  faiths  in 
order  to  acquire  the  key  that  will  unlock  to  him 
the  law  of  the  religious  evolution  of  mankind. 

The  present  book  purports  to  be  a  contribution  to 
comparative  religion,  and  it  is  one-sided  because  it 
is  addressed  mainly  to  Christians,  viz.,  to  those 
Christians  who  are  anxious  to  acquire  an  insight 
into  the  significance  of  Buddhist  thought  as  it  is  at 
its  best. 

Buddhism  and  Christianity  are  in  many  respects 


6  PKEFACE. 

so  similar  as  to  appear  almost  identical;  in  other 
respects  they  exhibit  such  contrasts  as  to  represent 
two  opposite  poles;  and  it  is  on  this  account  that 
a  study  of  Buddhism  is  indispensable  for  a  proper 
comprehension  of  Christianity. 

But  what  is  true  of  Buddhism  in  its  relation  to 
Christianity  is  not  less  true  of  Christianity  in  its  re- 
lation to  Buddhism.  When  I  think  that  this  book 
may  be  read  by  such  Buddhists  of  Japan,  Ceylon,  or 
Siam  as  are  only  superficially  acquainted  with  Chris- 
tianity, I  feel  like  adding  to  its  contents  another 
chapter  that  might  easily  be  extended  into  a  book, 
in  which  I  would  refute  their  various  misconcep- 
tions of  Christianity  and  urge  them  to  send  emis- 
saries to  Christian  countries,  especially  to  the  Prot- 
estants of  Germany,  England,  and  North  America, 
for  the  sake  of  investigating  Christian  modes  of 
worship,  Christian  institutions,  and  Christian  ideals. 
The  importance  of  Christianity  does  not  consist  of 
its  dogmas,  but  in  the  spirit  in  which  these  dogmas 
are  interpreted  and  applied  to  the  home  life  of 
Christian  congregations;  and  it  is  on  these  lines 
that  Buddhists  can  learn  many  valuable  lessons 
which  Christian  missionaries  can  only  imperfectly 
communicate  to  them. 

The  main  advantage  of  Christianity  over  Bud- 
dhism consists  in  the  activity  which  it  inspires. 
Buddhism  has  to  a  great  extent  (with  the  excep- 
tion, perhaps,  of  some  Japanese  sects)  favored  a  pas- 
sive attitude  in  life.  In  spite  of  Buddha's  injunction 
to  -be  untiring  and  energetic,  salvation  was  still 


PKEFACB.  7 

sought  by  many  Buddhist  saints  in  the  suppression 
of  all  aspirations.  In  spite  of  Buddha's  rejection  of  as- 
ceticism, and  his  declaration  that  hermit  and  layman 
are  alike,  if  they  but  free  themselves  of  the  illusion 
of  self,  the  ethics  of  world-flight  after  the  fashion  of 
the  old  Yoga  philosophers  continued  to  be  regarded 
as  the  highest  goal  of  religion.  In  spite  of  Buddha's 
lessons  of  compassion,  charity,  and  practically  ap- 
plied love  toward  all  suffering  creatures,  the  bliss 
of  Buddhahood  was  frequently  sought  more  in  the 
state  of  an  eternal,  undisturbed  happiness  as  is 
afforded  only  after  the  riddance  of  all  corporeality 
in  the  abstraction  of  a  pure  spirituality  and  not  in 
helpfulness  and  struggles  for  further  advance.  On 
all  these  lines  Christianity,  especially  Christianity 
as  it  is  to-day  in  the  United  States,  marks  a  decided 
advance  in  the  practical  applications  of  Buddha's 
own  principles.  In  Christianity  the  principle  is 
dropped  that  the  Buddha,  the  Christ,  the  Master,  the 
Blessed  One  must  at  the  same  time  be  the  Happy 
One.  Bliss  is  not  always  happiness.  In  addition  to 
the  paradoxes  of  Buddha's  ethics,  for  instance,  that 
by  giving  away  we  gain  and  that  hatred  is  conquered 
by  love,  we  learn  through  Christ  that  the  Blessed 
One  may  be  the  Suffering  One,  and  that  the  man  of 
peace  may  be  the  boldest  struggler. 

Christianity  is  less  philosophical  than  Buddhism ; 
Christ  proclaims  no  theory  of  soul ;  he  says  nothing 
about  the  nature  of  things,  and  never  enters  into 
metaphysical  inquisitions  of  any  kind.  The  Chris- 
tian theories  of  creation,  of  God's  personality  and 


g  PREFACE. 

trinity,  of  the  nature  of  the  soul  and  the  mode  of 
resurrection  were  made  later  on  by  the  church  fath- 
ers and  church  councils.  Christ  expressly  declared 
that  he  spoke  in  parables.  But  this  humbler 
method  of  popular  teaching  was  more  effectual  than 
Buddha's  philosophy.  Whatever  may  be  said  in 
favor  of  Buddhism,  its  profundity,  its  cosmic  uni- 
versality, and  the  loftiness  of  its  morality,  the  great 
strength  of  Christianity  lies  in  the  lesson  of  Gol- 
gotha, which  means,  salvation  lies  not  alone  in  the 
attainment  of  the  truth,  but  in  struggling  for  it, 
in  living  for  it,  in  suffering  for  it,  and  in  dying  for 
it. 

The  heaven  of  Christian  dogmatology  is  too 
mythological  for  a  scientist  and  the  Nirvana  of 
Buddhists  too  abstract  for  the  mass  of  the  people. 
The  former  is  in  its  popular  form  not  acceptable  in 
our  present  age  of  scientific  exactness,  and  the  latter 
is  after  the  Asiatic  mode  of  thinking,  too  much  con- 
ceived in  its  negative  aspects,  and  if  the  attempt  is 
made  to  show  its  positive  features,  Nirvana  appears 
as  mere  being  instead  of  doing;  as  mere  rest  in- 
stead of  efficacy,  as  a  state  of  abstract  indifference 
instead  of  a  definite  condition  of  existence. 

A  comparison  with  Christian  views  will  help 
Buddhists  better  to  define  their  own  faith.  But 
what,  above  all,  is  most  needful  for  both  parties  is 
the  adoption  of  exact  and  scientific  methods  of 
investigation  in  the  fields  of  psychology  and  phi- 
losophy. - 

There  is  a  rivalry  between  Christianity  and  Bud- 


PREFACE.  9 

dhism,  more  so  than  between  other  religions,  and 
the  question  is  which  will  be  the  first  to  clarify  our 
conceptions  of  the  religious  goal  of  mankind  in 
plain  terms,  so  as  to  suit  the  practical  demands 
of  life,  the  Christians  or  the  Buddhists.  Christians 
can  learn  much  of  Buddhism ;  and  Buddhists  can 
learn  much  of  Christianity.  The  final  victory  in 
their  competition  will  be  with  those  who  learn 
most  of  the  other. 

Christianity  conquered  other  religions  by  adopt- 
ing of  them  that  which  was  good.  It  adopted  of 
the  Greek  the  Logos  philosophy  and  of  the  Teutons 
the  ethics  of  struggle  and  energetic  endeavor.  It 
is  only  since  Christianity  refused  to  assimilate  new 
truths,  that  its  progress  was  checked  ;  and  the  same 
is  true  of  Buddhism.  The  religious  future  of  a  re- 
ligion depends  upon  the  spiritual  vitality  of  its  rep- 
resentatives, and  vitality  means  capacity  of  growth. 

Mankind  does  not  want  Buddhism,  nor  Islam,  nor 
Christianity ;  mankind  wants  the  truth,  and  the  truth 
is  best  brought  out  by  an  impartial  comparison. 
There  is  probably  no  human  mind  free  from  error, 
but  he  Avho  "  proves  all  and  keeps  the  best "  is  most 
likely  to  attain  to  perfection. 

Missionaries  are  religious  ambassadors.  Their 
duty  consists  not  only  in  the  propagation  of  their 
own  religion,  but  also  in  the  acquisition  of  a  perfect 
comprehension  of  the  religion  of  those  people  to 
whom  they  are  sent,  and  Christians  can  justly  pride 
themselves  on  the  fact  that  all  their  great  mission- 
aries, such  men  as  Duff ,  Judson,  Hardy,  Beal,  Legge, 


10  PREFACE. 

and  others,  every  one  in  his  field,  did  an  enormous 
amount  of  work  which  served  to  widen  our  own 
knowledge  of  the  religious  views  that  prevail  in 
India,  Ceylon,  Burmah,  and  China.  Indeed,  had  it 
not  been  for  their  labors,  comparative  religion  would 
have  made  little  advance.  And  I  would  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  the  most  successful  part  of  their  work 
consisted,  not  in  making  a  few  converts  abroad,  but 
in  widening  the  horizon  of  the  people  who  had 
sent  them.  Such  is  the  advantage  of  an  exchange 
of  thought  on  the  most  important  questions  of  life, 
that  it  would  be  a  blessing  all  around  if  the  non- 
Christian  religions  also  decided,  on  a  larger  scale, 
to  send  missionaries  to  Europe  and  America  in 
order  to  have  among  Christians  their  faith  worth- 
ily represented,  to  facilitate  comparison  and  invite 
investigation. 

Mankind  is  destined  to  have  one  religion,  as  it  will 
have  one  moral  ideal  and  one  universal  language, 
and  the  decision  as  to  which  religion  will  at  last  be 
universally  accepted,  cannot  come  about  by  accident. 
Science  will  spread,  maybe,  slowly  but  unfailingly, 
and  the  universal  acceptance  of  a  scientific  world- 
conception  bodes  the  dawn  of  the  Religion  of  Truth, 
—a  religion  based  upon  plain  statements  of  fact 
unalloyed  with  myth  or  allegory.  In  the  eventual 
conditions  of  religious  life, there  maybe  a  difference 
of  rituals  and  symbols,  nay,  even  of  names,  accord- 
ing to  taste,  historical  tradition,  and  individual 
preference,  but  in  all  essentials  there  will  be  one 
religion  only,  for  there  is  only  one  truth,  which  re- 


PREFACE.  11 

mains  one  and  the  same  among  all  nations,  in  all 
climes,  and  under  all  conditions. 

The  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  holds  good 
also  in  the  domain  of  spiritual  institutions.  And  let 
us  remember  that  the  greatest  potver  lies  not  in 
numbers,  not  in  wealth,  not  in  political  influence, 
but  in  truth.  Whatever  may  be  the  fate  of  the 
various  faiths  of  the  world,  we  may  be  sure  that  the 
truth  will  prevail  in  the  end. 

PREFACE   TO   THE   REVISED   EDITION. 

In  offering  this  new  edition  to  the  public,  we 
would  state  that  with  two  or  three  slight  exceptions 
the  only  changes  that  have  been  made  from  the 
original  copy  are  corrections  of  typographical  errors. 
The  exceptions  include  an  additional  illustration, 
and  one  new  paragraph  of  detail  in  regard  to  the 
Xewton-IIooke  controversy. 

Since  the  original  appearance  of  Buddhism  and. 
its  Christian  Critics  the  author  has  published  a 
translation  of  Lao-Tsze's  Tao  Teh  King,  and  came 
then  to  a  definite  conclusion  concerning  the  trans- 
literation of  Chinese  words.  Since  that  time  he 
follows  Sir  Thomas  Wade's  system  of  orthography, 
which  gives  a  different  spelling  from  that  used  in 
this  book.  However,  it  has  not  seemed  worth 
while  to  make  the  alterations  necessary  to  conform 
such  words  to  the  more  mature  decision,  and  Too, 
Taoism,  Lao-Tsze,  and  Kwan  Yin  continue  to 
stand  in  this  later  edition  in  the  same  form  as  before, 
^  Tauium,  Lau-tsze  and  Kouan-yin. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  BUDDHISM. 


BRAHMANISM   THE    CRADLE   OF    BUDDHISM. 

ABOUT  two  and  a  half  millenniums  ago,  India 
was  already  in  a  very  prosperous  condition.  The 
land  yielded  rich  harvests  ;  industries  and  arts 
flourished  ;  and  science  kept  abreast  with  the  ma- 
terial development  of  civilization.  Logic,  however, 
and  abstract  reasoning  had  attained  an  unusually 
high  development,  for  in  these  arts  the  ancient  In- 
dians were  masters  above  all  other  nations  in  the 
world. 

In  those  days  the  religious  question  was,  perhaps, 
for  the  first  time,  recognized  in  its  full  importance, 
and  led  to  investigations,  discussions  and  various 
modes  of  solution.  The  central  problem  which  lies 
at  the  root  of  all  religion  is  concerned  with  the 
origin  of,  and  the  deliverance  from,  evil.  We  are 
thirsting  for  life,  not  only  for  life  in  general,  but 
for  individual  life,  for  the  preservation  of  our  per- 
sonal existence,  its  continuance,  welfare,  and  further 
evolution ;  yet  life  involves  us  in  pain,  misery,  labors, 
struggles,  sickness,  old  age  and  death.  The  very 
contents  of  life  seem  to  be  made  up  of  evils,  as  a 

13 


14         BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

means  of  escape  from  which  religion  was  sought, 
and  the  religion  of  India  was  in  those  days,  as  it  is 
now  again,  Brahmanism. 

Brahmanism  is  a  system  of  ceremonies,  prayers 
and  sacrifices  by  which  men  attempt  to  win  the 
favor  of  the  gods.  The  doctrines  of  Brahmanism 
are  contained  in  their  sacred  writings  called  the 
Vedas,  which  were  supposed  to  have  been  revealed 
by  divine  inspiration.  The  purpose  of  sacrifice  was 
threefold :  (1)  we  read  in  the  Yishnu-purana,"  By  sac- 
rifices the  gods  are  nourished,"  and  (2)  in  the  Tandya- 
brahmana  the  limb  of  the  victim  consigned  to  the 
fire  of  the  altar  is  called  "the  expiation  for  sins 
committed,  by  the  gods,  by  our  ancestors,  by  other 
men  now  living,  and  by  ourselves."  But  the  dearest 
hope  of  the  Hindu  was  (3)  to  acquire  through  sacri- 
fices supernatural  powers. 

The  Hindu  world-conception  as  it  appears  in  the 
Vedic  literature  may  be  called  a  loose  monism.  It 
is  a  unitary  world-conception  containing  a  polythe- 
istic mythology,  the  meaning  of  which,  however,  is 
frankly  declared  to  be  pantheistic.  Brahma  is  the 
One  and  All,  and  he  reveals  himself  in  all  the  various 
divinities.  We  read  in  the  Isa  Upanishad :  * 

"  Whate'er  exists  within  this  universe 
Is  all  to  be  regarded  as  enveloped 
By  the  great  Lord,  as  if  wrapped  in  a  vesture. 
There  is  one  only  Being  who  exists 
Unmoved,  yet  moving  swifter  than  the  mind  ; 
Who  far  outstrips  the  senses,  though  as  gods 
*  From  Sir  Monier  Monier- Williams'  Hinduism,  p.  45. 


THE   ORIGIN   OF   BUDDHISM.  15 

They  strive  to  reach  him ;  who  himself  at  rest 
Transcends  the  fleetest  flight  of  other  beings ; 
Who,  like  the  air,  supports  all  vital  action. 
He  moves,  yet  moves  not ;  he  is  farfyet  near ; 
He  is  within  this  universe.    Whoe'er  beholds 
All  living  creatures  as  in  him  and  him — 
The  universal  Spirit— as  in  all, 
Henceforth  regards  no  creature  with  contempt." 

The  social  system  of  ancient  India  divided  the 
people  rigorously  into  four  castes :  the  Brahmans  or 
priests,  the  Kshatriyas  or  warriors,  the  Yaishyas  or 
traders  and  agriculturists,  and  the  Shudras,  or  the 
lowly  class  of  the  conquered  population.  The  first 
three  are  Aryans ;  the  last  mentioned,  the  original 
inhabitants  of  India. 

THE   DAKSANAS   OF   ANCIENT   INDIA. 

There  were  six  philosophies  (Darsanas)  in  ancient 
India :  1.  The  Mimansa,  founded  by  Jaimini ;  2.  The 
Yedanta,  whose  main  representative  was  Sankara- 
charya ;  3.  The  Yaisheshika,  founded  by  Kanada  • 
4.  The  Nyana,  founded  by  Gotama;  5.  The  Sam- 
khya,  founded  by  Kapila ;  and  6.  The  Yoga.  The 
first  two,  Mimansa  and  Yedanta,  may  briefly  be 
characterized  as  an  exegesis  of  the  Yedas.  The 
Yedas  are  said  to  be  eternal  and  their  authority  is 
recognized  as  absolute.  The  aim  of  the  Mimansa  is 
to  explain  unintelligible  passages  of  the  Yedic  texts 
and  to  give  reliable  information  concerning  the 
proper  performances  of  ceremonies  and  sacrifices. 
The  Yedanta,  which  literally  means  the  end  or  aim 


16         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

of  the  Vedas,  reduces  the  religious  doctrines  of  the 
Vedas  to  scientifically  exact  terras.  Its  trend  is  a 
philosophy  which  is  called  Advaita  or  non-duality,  a 
spiritualistic  monism,  or  rather  a  pantism,  teaching 
the  doctrine  that  Brahma,  the  universal  soul,  is  the 
all,  and  the  only  true  reality,  while  all  things  and 
individual  beings  are  mere  appearance,  a  product  of 
illusion  (Maya)  and  ignorance  (Avidya). 

The  Yaisheshika  and  Nyana  belong  together. 
The  founder  of  the  Yaisheshika  is  only  known  by 
his  nickname  Kanada  which  means  "  Atom-eater." 
The  peculiarity  of  his  philosophy  consists  in  his 
method  of  classification.  There  are  six  categories  : 
Substance,  quality,  action,  generality  of  properties, 
particularity  and  inherence.  The  disciples  of  Kanada 
add  as  a  seventh  category,  non-existence.  The  fifth 
category,  particularity  (vaishesha\  gave  the  name 
to  the  system.  Keality  is  conceived  of  as  an  infinite 
variety  of  particular  units  or  atoms,  the  infinite 
nature  of  which  remains  constantly  the  same.  The 
atoms  are  self-existent,  uncaused  and  eternal.  An 
invisible  force  (adrishta)  is  the  forming  principle. 
Man's  soul  (purusha)  is  supposed  to  be  without  be- 
ginning and  without  end,  all-pervading  and  omni- 
present in  space.  The  action  of  the  soul  depends 
upon  mind  (manas),  which,  in  contrast  to  the  dif- 
fused nature  of  the  soul,  is  conceived  as  an  atom 
capable  of  being  in  one  place  only  at  a  time.  This 
artificial  idea  of  an  all-pervading  soul  and  a  monad- 
mind,  or  manas,  was  invented  to  account  for  the 
fact  that  man  can  think  of  one  thing  at  a  time  only, 


THE   ORIGIN    OF    BUDDHISM.  17 

while  he  is  at  the  same  time  conscious  of  possessing 
deeper  spiritual  resources. 

The  RVana  philosophy  is  a  mere  extension  of  the 
Yaisheshika.  It  adopts  the  atomic  theory  and 
psychology  of  the  latter  and  adds  expositions  of  the 
method  of  inquiry.  It  might  best  be  characterized 
as  a  system  of  formal  logic  applied  to  practical  rea- 
soning. Later  representatives  of  the  Yaisheshika 
and  the  Xyana  admitted  a  certain  theism,  but  their 
god  is  not  like  the  Christian  God,  the  creator  of  the 
world,  but  only  one  extraordinarily  powerful  in- 
dividual soul  which  has  become  omnipresent  and 
omniscient  through  the  accumulation  of  merit  in 
former  existences,  and  is  now  exempt  from  migra- 
tion, enjoying  the  unfathomable  bliss  of  needing  no 
deliverance. 

The  Samkhya  philosophy  is  dualistic,  propounding 
the  theory  of  a  radical  difference  of  self  or  soul  or 
subjective  being,  and  the  objectivity  of  material 
bodies ;  it  assumes  the  eternal  existence  and  reality 
of  both  matter  and  soul,  or  rather  souls,  for  Kapila 
assumed  the  existence  of  an  indefinite  number  of 
souls.  He  argued :  Impure  matter  cannot  originate 
from  pure  spirit  or  vice  versa  ;  and  he  denied  at  the 
same  time  in  unequivocal  terms  the  existence  of  a 
creator,  for  there  is  no  creation  out  of  nothing,  and 
all  becoming  is  transformation  according  to  law. 
Samkhya  means  "  enumeration,"  which  name  has 
probably  been  chosen  on  account  of  the  enumeration 
of  the  principles  of  Samkhya  philosophy,  which 
sketcli  the  evolution  of  the  present  form  of  existence 
2 


18        BUDDHISM  AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

from  the  undifferentiated  primordial  matter  called 
prakriti — the  unproduced  producer  and  the  rootless 
root  of  all  things. 

The  Toga  philosophy  adopts  the  theories  of  the 
Samkhya,  adding  to  them  the  practice  of  meditation 
and  self -induced  trances.  The  means  of  self-hypnoti- 
zation  consisted  in  abstraction  from  the  outer  world 
and  the  concentration  of  the  mind  on  itself  with  the 
aim  of  isolating  the  soul  from  matter  and  thus  gain- 
ing deliverance. 

"We  might  mention  as  a  seventh  school  the  mate- 
rialistic philosophy  of  the  Charvakas  or  Lokayatas, 
founded  by  Vrihaspati.  They  recognize  only  sense- 
perception  as  a  source  of  knowledge  and  reject  the 
reliability  of  logical  inference.  They  regard  only 
the  four  elements — earth,  air,  fire,  and  water — as 
real,  and  consider  intelligence  as  a  transient  product 
of  these  elements.  Soul  is  to  them  identical  with 
the  body,  and  all  phenomena  are  declared  to  be 
purely  mechanical  processes.  They  ridicule  sacrifices 
as  much  as  devotion  and  penance,  and  do  not  believe 
in  the  retribution  of  moral  justice.  The  Charvakas 
have  never  succeeded  in  becoming  a  recognized  school 
or  producing  any  literary  documents  of  importance. 
We  know  them  only  through  the  arguments  of  their 
adversaries  who  mention  their  theories  merely  for 
the  purpose  of  refuting  them. 

There  are  certain  ideas  which  cannot  be  credited 
to  any  one  of  the  various  schools,  because  they  have 
come  to  be  the  common  property  of  Indian  thought ; 
they  are  briefly  stated  as  follows  : 


THE   ORIGIN   OF   BUDDHISM.  19 

1.  The   irrefragability  of   the  law  of    causation, 
which  is  said  to  be  as  rigid  in  the  sphere  of  morals  as 
in  the  physical  world.     It  is  called  "  the  law  of  Kar- 
ma, which  means  that  our  existence  is  the  exact 
product  of  our  deeds  done  in  our  present  and  in  for- 
mer existences,  and  that  our  sufferings  are  just  pun- 
ishments for  sins  previously  committed,  while  the 
advantages  we   enjoy  are  the  rewards  for  former 
merits. 

2.  The  transmigration  of  souls  according  to  their 
Karma. 

3.  The  pain  of  Samsara  (the  circuit  of  life),  which 
means  that  the  eternal" repetition  of  soul-migration 
implicates  us  in  evils  of  all  kinds,  especially  birth, 
disease,  old  age,  and  death  ;  or  briefly,  that  life  is 
suffering. 

4.  The  salvation  of  Nirvana,  that  is  to  say,  the 
aim  of  all  moral  aspirations  is  to  reach  the  calm  and 
peaceful  bliss  of   Nirvana,  which  is  a   deliverance 
from  the  evils  of  Samsara. 


THE    SAMKHYA    PHILOSOPHY. 

The  Samkhya  philosophy  is  of  special  interest  in 
so  far  as  it  forms  the  starting-point  of  Buddhistic 
thought.  We  cannot  understand  Buddhism  without 
considering  the  great  influence  of  the  dualism  and 
pessimism  exercised  on  Indian  thinkers  by  the  Sam- 
khya philosophy. 

As  in  Sanskrit,  soul  and  man  are  expressed  by  the 
same  word  (Purusha),  matter  was  naturally  com- 


20        BUDDHISM   AND  ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

pared  to  a  woman,  a  favorite  simile  employed  not 
only  by  many  dualistic  philosophers,  but  also  by  Gior- 
dano Bruno,  the  great  martyr  and  champion  of  mon- 
ism who  stands  at  the  threshold  of  modern  thought. 
But  \vhile  Giordano  represents  the  female  principle, 
natter,  as  passive  and  the  male  principle,  spirit, 
as  active,  Kapila  represents  matter  as  active  and  soul 
as  passive,  reminding  us  of  the  quite  modern  view  of 
some  French  psychologists  who  describe  conscious- 
ness as  a  mere  accompaniment  of  the  physiological 
brain  motions,  which  latter  alone  are  said  to  be  active 
and  efficient  to  serve  as  causes  in  the  bodily  system. 
Soul,  according  to  the  Samkhya  view,  is  the  princi- 
ple of  apperception,  while  matter  is  that  which  pro- 
duces effects  in  the  world  of  reality.  Their  union 
as  we  find  it  in  living  organisms  is  compared  to  a 
lame  man  mounted  on  a  blind  man.  Matter,  the 
blind  man,  is  said  to  be  the  faithful  servant  of 
the  soul,  the  lame  man.  The  exertions  of  the  for- 
mer are  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the  latter.  As 
soon  as  the  soul  becomes  disgusted  with  the  rest- 
lessness of  the  material  world,  matter  ceases  to  be 
active  ;  it  is  recognized  as  inane  and  becomes  inert, 
while  the  soul  after  its  separation  from  matter  enjoys 
deliverance  (Apavarga),  which  is  the  highest  bliss 
attainable.  At  the  close  of  the  introduction  of  a 
Samkhya  text-book  (the  Samkhya  Pravacana-Bha- 
shya)  the  following  four  propositions  are  added, 
which  bear  a  close  resemblance  to  the  four  noble 
truths  of  "Buddha,  We  read  : 

1.  That  from  which  we  deliver  ourselves  is  pain. 


THE   ORIGIN    OF  BUDDHISM.  21 

2.  Deliverance  is  the  cessation  of  pain. 

3.  The  cause  of  pain  is  the  lack  of  distinction  be- 
tween soul  and  matter,  which  produces  their  con- 
tinued union. 

4.  The  means  of  deliverance  is  the  discerning  cog- 
nition. 

Kapila  rejected  the  methods  of  salvation  proposed 
by  the  Brahmans,  which  were  sacrifices,  prayers  and 
ceremonies.  They  may  be  granted  to  alleviate  pain, 
but  they  do  not  free  us  from  the  cause  of  pain  and 
therefore  cannot  make  its  return  forever  impossible. 
Kapila  argues :  Since  pain  lasts  only  so  long  as  the 
soul  is  in  connection  with  the  body  and  the  bodily 
organs,  salvation  can  be  obtained  only  by  the  abso- 
lute separation  of  soul  and  body,  which  must  be 
affected  through  a  cognition  of  the  difference  be- 
tween soul  and  body. 

The  practical  application  of  the  Samkhya  philos- 
ophy led  to  asceticism.  Self-mortification,  in  the 
literal  sense  of  the  word,  was  supposed  to  be  the 
means  of  salvation.  The  body  must  be  killed.  It 
must  become  dead  so  that  the  soul  may  live  in  a 
state  of  pure  spirituality  and  the  struggle  for  a  pain- 
less existence  became  identical  with  the  attempt  of 
reaching  a  state  of  bodiless  soul-life.  Matter  was 
denounced  as  the  source  of  all  evil,  the  three  qualities 
of  matter  (the  three  gunas)  Avhich  as  they  affect  us 
in  three  ways  were  called  good  (mttva),  bad  (raja), 
and  indifferent  (tamas),  were  compared  to  a  triple 
rope  by  which  the  soul  is  bound  ;  but  pure  spirit 
was  supposed  to  be  free  from  pain,  old  age  and  death. 


22        BUDDHISM  AND  ITS  CHRISTIAN  CRITICS. 

There  were  many  serious  men  in  those  days  who 
tried  to  realize  the  ideal  of  this  ascetic  dualism. 
Fasts  and  self-mortifications  were  carried  to  their 
extremes,  and  if,  as  a  natural  consequence,  trances 
with  ecstatic  visions  appeared,  those  morbid  states 
were  considered  as  the  first  hopeful  symptoms  of  a 
partial  deliverance  of  the  soul.  But  a  radical  sepa- 
ration of  body  and  soul  and  an  actual  deliverance 
from  evil  were  not  attained  in  this  way. 

The  more  the  Samkhya  ideas  gained  ground,  the 
higher  grew  the  repute  of  the  yoga-practice  of  at- 
taining deliverance  by  entering  into  trances. 


THE   APPEARANCE    OF    BUDDHA. 

The  religious  ideal  of  delivering  mankind  from 
evil  had  become  so  general  that  many  teachers  ap- 
peared, hermits,  ascetics,  and  philosophical  thinkers 
of  all  kinds,  who  pretended  to  have  found  the  way 
of  salvation,  which  would  lead  to  Nirvana,  to  the 
extinction  of  all  misery,  to  peace  and  happiness ; 
and  a  man  who  had  attained  perfect  enlightenment 
so  as  to  be  able  to  show  to  mankind  the  way  of  sal- 
vation was  called  Buddha. 

Among  the  Buddhas  who  appeared  in  those  days 
there  were  two  whose  doctrines  led  to  the  foun- 
dation of  religions  which  still  exist.  One  of  them  is 
Vardhamana,  the  son  of  Jnata,  frequently  called 
Jnataputra,  who  lived  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  and  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  B.  c.  He  is  the 
founder  of  the  Jain  sect,  which  at  the  present  day 


THE  ORIGIN  OF   BUDDHISM.  23 

numbers  almost  half  a  million  adherents  in  India, 
most  of  whom  are  said  to  belong  to  the  richest  and 
most  aristocratic  classes  of  the  Hindus.  The  other 
Buddha  is  Gautama  Siddhartha,  the  son  of  a  wealthy 
land-owner  at  Kapilavastu.  He  is  a  younger  contem- 
porary of  Vardhamana  ;  he  lived  in  the  fifth  century 
B.  c.  and  is  the  founder  of  Buddhism. 

Buddha's  religion  has  been  and  may  be  considered 
as  a  further  development  of  the  Samkhya  philosophy, 
because  it  shows  in  many  details  traces  of  Samkhya 
terms  and  modes  of  thought.  But  Buddha  changed 
the  foundation  of  the  system,  overcame  its  dualism, 
and  applied  the  new  doctrine  thus  gained  to  practical 
life.  He  became  the  most  powerful,  the  boldest, 
and  most  radical  reformer  that  ever  appeared  in  the 
history  of  mankind.  From  the  Samkhya  philos- 
ophers Buddha  adopted  the  doctrine  of  the  exist- 
ence of  misery  and  the  attempt  to  deliver  man  from 
evil,  seeking  salvation  through  enlightenment.  Like 
them  he  expressed  his  doctrine  in  a  fourfold  formula. 
Like  them  he  acknowledged  the  rigidity  of  the  law 
of  causation,  and  pushed  its  application  so  far  as 
to  deny  frankly  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  rituals,  and 
sacrifices.  Indeed  Buddha  lost  no  opportunity  of 
denouncing  bloody  sacrifices  as  unnecessary,  cruel, 
and  inhuman.  He  disregarded  caste  distinction  and 
denied  the  divine  inspiration  of  the  Vedas,  in  conse- 
quence of  which  he  was  considered  as  irreligious  by 
orthodox  Brahmans.  And  yet  his  irreligious  atti- 
tude was  only  a  protest  against  religious  super- 
stitions and  abuses.  But  Buddha  differed  from  the 


24        BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

Samkhya  philosophy  not  less  thoroughly  than  from 
the  Brahmans  in  ethics.  His  idea  of  enlightenment 
was  not  merely  the  recognition  of  a  theory,  but  the 
basis  for  an  energetic  activity.  Enlightenment, 
according  to  Buddha,  teaches  morality,  and  he  re- 
jected asceticism  as  injurious,  showing  his  disciples, 
as  he  called  it,  the  "  middle  way,"  which  abstains 
from  both  extremes,  self -mortification  and  self- 
indulgence.  Having  subjected  himself  to  a  rigorous 
asceticism,  he  came  to  the  conclusion  that  by  thus 
subduing  the  body  the  mind  was  crippled.  The 
mind  became  dimmed  after  severe  fasts,  and  deliver- 
ance could  not  be  obtained.  He  recognized  that  our 
evil  desire,  and  not  material  existence,  was  the  root 
of  evil,  and  proposed  as  a  remedy  neither  self- 
mortification  nor  the  beatific  visions  of  the  yoga, 
nor  the  prayer  and  sacrifices  of  the  Brahmans,  but 
the  radical  extinction  of  desire.  Buddha  saw  for  the 
first  time  clearly  that  the  religious  problem  was  a 
moral  problem ;  that  pain  is  only  a  transient  evil 
which  need  not  concern  us ;  that  the  real  evil  is  sin  ; 
that  the  root  of  sin  is  to  be  found  in  the  lust  of  the 
mind ;  and  that  he  who  harbors  no  lust  or  ill-will  in 
his  heart  will  naturally  walk  in  the  path  of  right- 
eousness. Take  away  desire  and  you  destroy  evil 
at  its  root. 

Kapila's  dualism  proclaimed  that  a  distinction 
existed  between  soul  and  body,  yet  Kapila  regarded 
man's  sensations  and  thoughts  and  desires  as  mate- 
rial. The  soul  was  to  him  a  transcendent  being, 
which  by  a  kind  of  sublimated  body  (similar  to  the 


THE  OttlGIN   OF  BUDDHISM.  25 

so-called  astral  body  of  our  modern  theosophists, 
and  supposed  to  reside  in  the  material  body)  was 
implicated  in  the  world  of  matter.  This  meta- 
physical soul-being  of  the  Samkhya  philosophy  was 
supposed  to  be  the  apprehending  principle  in  all 
psychic  activities.  It  was  said,  that  the  eye  does 
not  see,  the  ear  does  not  hear,  and  thoughts  do  not 
think,  but  it  is  that  mysterious  something  called 
atman,  i.  e.,  self  or  soul,  which  is  the  smeller  in  the 
nose,  the  taster  in  the  tongue,  the  seer  in  the  eye, 
the  thinker  of  our  thoughts,  and  the  doer  of  our  acts. 

Kapila  assumed  an  innumerable  number  of  souls, 
which  made  his  system  intricate  and  invited  the 
criticism  exercised  by  his  great  successor,  Gautama, 
who  went  so  far  as  to  deny  the  existence  of  the 
atman,  a  theory  which  is  generally  called  a  denial  of 
the  existence  of  the  soul. 

We  have  to  add  here  that  the  translation  of  atman 
by  soul  is  very  misleading.  Buddha  did  not  deny 
the  existence  of  our  feelings,  sentiments,  ideas  and 
ideal  aspirations.  He  only  denied  the  existence  of 
a  hypothetical  soul-subject  which  is  supposed  to  be 
the  principle  or  agent  of  our  psychical  activity.  He 
denied  the  metaphysical  soul-entity,  not  the  soul  it- 
self. He  rejected  Kapila's  dualism,  but  he  did  not 
fall  into  the  opposite  extreme  of  materialism  ;  and 
strange  to  say,  he  anticipated  the  modern  conception 
of  the  soul  as  it  is  now  taught  by  the  most  advanced 
scientists  of  Europe. 

Buddha's  world-conception  at  the  same  time  coin- 
cides with  the  theory  of  evolution.  Every  organ- 


26        BUDDHISM  AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

ism,  according  to  Buddha,  consists  of  samskaras, 
generally  translated  "confections,"  that  is,  soul- 
structures,  formations  or  dispositions  which  through 
function  have  originated  in  a  gradual  development. 
All  creatures  are  the  product  of  an  immeasurably 
long  chain  of  deeds.  They  are  the  result  of  their 
Karma. 

Man  also  is  a  bundle  of  samskaras  ;  his  eye  is  the 
product  of  seeing,  resulting  from  sensation  under  the 
influence  of  light ;  his  ear  is  the  product  of  hearing, 
resulting  from  sensation  under  the  influence  of 
sounds ;  and  in  the  same  way  all  the  organs  of  our 
bodily  and  of  our  spiritual  organizations  are  the 
product  of  deeds  transmitted  to  us  either  directly  by 
inheritance  or  indirectly  by  education.  These  sam- 
skaras constitute  our  being.  The  eye  sees,  the  ear 
hears ;  our  thoughts  think.  There  is  no  metaphys- 
ical entity  behind  them  as  their  agent,  but  these  sam- 
skaras, or  soul-forms,  constituting  our  existence  are 
transmitted  by  action,  word  and  example,  to  others. 
There  is,  accordingly,  no  soul  migration,  but  there 
is  rebirth  ;  i.  e.,  there  is  a  reappearance  of  the  same 
type  of  soul.  Our  samskaras  impress  themselves 
on  and  they  continue  in  others.  Death  is  only  the 
discontinuance  of  their  presence  in  the  special  body 
of  an  individual ;  but  death  is  not  the  annihilation  of 
a  man's  karma,  for  his  karma  continues  according  to 
the  law  of  causation.  Death  does  not  annihilate  the 
samskaras  who  continue  in  following  generations 
according  to  the  deeds  done  during  life.  Thus  death 
disappears  in  Buddha's  soul-conception,  and  the 


THE   ORIGIN   OF   BUDDHISM.  27 

realities  of  our  psychical  existence  are  recognized  in 
their  pre-existence  as  well  as  in  their  continuation 
after  death. 

The  Buddhistic  view  of  immortality  which  is 
based  on  the  denial  of  the  atman  is  forcibly  ex- 
pressed in  the  Buddhist  canon.  Buddha,  having  at- 
tained enlightenment,  met  on  his  way  Upaka,  a 
young  Brahman  and  a  former  acquaintance  of  his. 
Upaka  said  to  Gautama :  "  Your  countenance,  friend, 
is  serene,  and  your  eyes  are  bright,  indicating  purity 
and  blessedness."  And  Buddha,  having  told  Upaka 
that  he  had  attained  deliverance,  adds  (according  to 
the  translation  of  Prof.  Samuel  Beal  from  a  Chinese 
text) :  "  I  am  now  going  to  the  city  of  Benares  to 
establish  the  kingdom  of  righteousness,  to  give  light 
to  those  enshrouded  in  darkness  and  open  the  gate 
of  Immortality  to  men."  * 

Buddha's  idea  of  salvation  is  ultimately  based  on 
enlightenment,  and  enlightenment  is  to  him  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  nature  of  things.  We  are  confronted 
with  evil  and  find  the  root  of  all  evil  in  the  way- 
wardness of  our  own  heart.  There  is  the  notion 
that  our  inmost  existence  is  an  ego-entity,  but  this 
is  an  error  ;  it  is  the  illusion  of  self,  for  the  preser- 


*  The  Romantic  Legend  of  Sdkt/a  Buddha  translated  from  the 
Chinese  Sanskrit  by  S.  Beal,  p.  -'-to.  The  translation  of  the 
corresponding  passage  from  the  Pali  reads,  according  to  Rhys 
Davids,  as  follows  :  "Iain  now  going  to  establish  the  kingdom 
of  righteousness.  For  this  purpose  I  am  going  to  the  city  of 
Benare  s,  to  give  light  to  those  enshrouded  in  darkness  and  to 
open  the  gate  of  Immortality  to  men." 


28        BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

vation  of  which  we  are  so  anxious.  Selfhood  is  the 
source  of  vanity,  egotism  and  sin.  There  is  no 
moral  wrong  but  it  has  its  ultimate  root  in  selfhood. 
Knowing,  now,  that  selfhood  is  an  illusion,  that  this 
limited  individuality  of  ours  is  only  a  temporary 
abode  of  the  soul,  whose  stream  flows  on  uninter- 
ruptedly, we  learn  the  transitoriness  of  the  ills  that 
the  flesh  is  heir  to,  and  identify  the  true  self  of  our 
real  being  with  those  immortal  elements  of  our  soul 
which  are  not  touched  by  death.  Buddha's  ideal, 
accordingly,  is  the  utter  annihilation  of  all  thought 
of  self  and  the  preservation  of  all  that  is  in  conform- 
ity with  enlightenment.  The  utter  extermination 
of  desire  alone  can  afford  a  final  deliverance  from 
the  evil  of  existence,  leading  to  that  absolute  peace 
of  mind  which  is  called  Nirvana. 

Buddha  rejected  the  religious  superstition  that 
there  was  any  merit  in  ceremonies  and  sacrifices ; 
but  he  rejected  also  the  monkish  ethics  of  asceticism, 
proclaiming  openly  and  without  equivocation  that 
holiness  cannot  be  attained  by  self -mortification  and 
austerities,  but  only  by  a  radical  surrender  of  all  self- 
ish desire. 

Gautama  Siddhartha,  the  founder  of  Buddhism, 
was  what  to-day  would  be  called  a  freethinker,  for 
his  religion  is  different  from  Brahmanism,  in  so  far 
as  he  promises  no  help  from  Brahma  or  an\'  other 
Deity,  but  enjoins  its  devotees  to  rely  upon  them- 
selves, and  have  no  other  guide  but  the  truth. 
"  Hold  fast  to  the  truth  as  to  a  lamp,"  were  the 
significant  words  of  Buddha  in  his  farewell  address 


THE   ORIGIN   OF   BUDDHISM.  29 

to  bis  disciples  before  be  died.  He  bowed  to  no  au- 
thority, and  set  up  no  creed,  no  dogma.  He  denied 
the  divine  inspiration  of  tbe  Vedas,  the  sacred 
scriptures  of  Brahmanism,  refused  to  recognize 
castes,  rejected  rituals  as  irrelevant,  denounced  sac- 
rifices as  inhuman,  ridiculed  prayer  as  useless,  dis- 
dained worship,  refused  to  believe  in  tbe  creation  of 
the  world  by  an  Ishvara  (i.  e.,  a  good  Lord  and  per- 
sonal God),  and  denied  the  existence  of  a  soul-entity 
or  atman.  •  In  a  word,  be  opposed  all  tbe  favorite 
notions  of  Brahmanism,  the  religion  of  his  time. 
And  yet  be  was  not  an  irreligious  man.  On  the 
contrary,  he  was  deeply  religious,  and  certainly 
more  religious  than  any  of  the  priests  of  his  age 
who  denounced  him  as  irreligious.  Such  was  the 
influence  of  bis  powerful  personality  that  bis  disci- 
ples spread  his  doctrine  over  all  Asia,  and  his  relig- 
ion has  even  in  its  aberrations  preserved  the  moral 
earnestness  of  its  founder. 

Of  special  interest  is  the  method  in  which  tbe 
Brahmanical  belief  of  Brahma  as  the  creator,  gov- 
ernor and  Lord  over  all  things  is  treated  in  Bud- 
dhistic literature.  As  an  instance  we  quote  from  the 
Digha-Nikaya,  XI.  67,  where  a  certain  priest  is  in- 
troduced who  goes  in  quest  of  a  philosophical  prob- 
lem. After  having  addressed  all  the  sages,  kings, 
and  gods,  he  comes  at  last  to  Brahma  himself.  And 
Brahma  says :  "  I,  O  priest,  am  Brahma,  Great 
"  Brahma,  the  Supreme  Being,  the  Unsurpassed, 
"  the  Perceiver  of  All  Things,  the  Controller,  the 
«  Lord  of  All,  tbe  Maker,  tbe  Fashioner,  the  Chief, 


30        BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN  CRITICS. 

"  the  Victor,  the  Ruler,  the  Father  of  All  Beings 
"  Who  Have  Been  and  Are  to  Be."  The  priest, 
having  patiently  listened  to  this  self -definition,  calls 
Brahma's  attention  to  his  question,  saying:  "My 
"  friend,  I  am  not  asking  you,  Are  you  Brahma, 
"  Great  Brahma,  the  Supreme  Being,  etc.  ?  but  I  ask 
"  you  a  question  which  I  should  like  to  have  an- 
"  swered."  But  Brahma,  instead  of  replying  to  the 
question,  repeats  his  speech  a  second  and  a  third  time, 
and  when  the  priest  is  not  to  be  quieted  in  this  way 
Brahma  takes  the  questioner  by  the  arm,  leads  him 
aside  and  says  to  him  in  a  whisper :  "  O  priest,  these 
* '  gods  of  my  suite  believe  as  follows :  Brahma  sees  all 
"  things,  knows  all  things,  has  penetrated  all  things. 
"  Therefore  was  it  that  I  did  not  answer  you  in 
"  their  presence.  I  do  not  know  the  answer  to  your 
"  question.  Therefore  it  was  a  sin  and  a  crime  that 
"  you  left  the  Blessed  One  and  went  elsewhere  in 
"  quest  of  an  answer.  Turn  back,  O  priest,  and 
"  having  drawn  near  to  the  Blessed  One,  ask  him 
"  this  question,  and  as  the  Blessed  One  shall  explain 
"  unto  you,  so  believe." 

Concerning  Buddha's  atheism  the  following  pas- 
sage quoted  from  Max  Miiller's  essay  on  "  Buddhist 
Nihilism  "  is  instructive.  Max  Miiller  says : 

"As  to  Atheism,  it  cannot  be  denied  that,  if  we 
call  the  old  gods  of  the  Yeda — Indra  and  Agni,  and 
Yama — gods,  Buddha  was  an  Atheist.  He  does  not 
believe  in  the  divinity  of  those  deities.  What  is 
noteworthy  is  that  he  does  not  by  any  means  deny 
their  bare  existence,  just  as  little  as  St.  Augustine 


THE  ORIGIN   OP   BUDDHISM.  31 

and  other  Fathers  of  the  Church  endeavored  to 
sublimize,  or  entirely  explain  away,  the  existence  of 
the  Olympian  deities.  The  founder  of  Buddhism 
treats  the  old  gods  as  superhuman  beings,  and  prom- 
ises the  believers  that  they  shall  after  death  be  re- 
born into  the  world  of  the  gods,  and  shall  enjoy 
divine  bliss  with  the  gods.  Similarly  he  threatens 
the  wicked  that  after  death  they  shall  meet  with 
their  punishment  in  the  subterranean  abodes  and 
hells,  where  the  Asuras,  Sarpas,  Kagas,  and  other 
evil  spirits  dwell,  beings  whose  existence  was  more 
firmly  rooted  in  the  popular  belief  and  language, 
than  that  even  the  founder  of  a  new  religion  could 
have  dared  to  reason  them  away.  But,  although 
Buddha  assigned  to  these  mediatized  gods  and  devils, 
palaces,  gardens,  and  a  court, — not  second  to  their 
former  ones, — he  yet  deprived  them  of  all  their  sov- 
ereign rights.  Although,  according  to  Buddha,  the 
worlds  of  the  gods  last  for  millions  of  years,  they 
must  perish,  at  the  end  of  every  Kalpa,  with  the 
gods  and  with  the  spirits  who,  in  the  circle  of  births, 
have  raised  themselves  to  the  world  of  the  gods. 
Indeed,  the  reorganization  of  the  spirit  world  goes 
further  still.  Already,  before  Buddha,  the  Brahmans 
had  surmounted  the  low  standpoint  of  mythological 
polytheism,  and  had  supplanted  it  by  the  idea  of  the 
Brahman,  as  the  absolute  divine  or  super-divine 
power.  What,  then,  does  Buddha  decree?  To  this 
Brahman  also  he  assigns  a  place  in  his  universe. 
Over  and  above  the  world  of  the  gods  with  its  six 
paradises,  he  heaps  up  sixteen  Brahma-worlds,  not 


32        BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

to  be  attained  through  virtue  and  piety  only,  but 
through  inner .  contemplation,  through  knowledge 
and  enlightenment.  The  dwellers  in  these  worlds 
are  already  purely  spiritualized  beings,  without  body, 
without  weight,  without  desire,  far  above  men  and 
gods.  Indeed,  the  Buddhist  architect  rises  to  a  still 
more  towering  height,  heaping  upon  the  Brahma 
world  four  still  higher  worlds,  which  he  calls  the 
world  of  the  formless.  All  these  worlds  are  open 
to  man,  and  the  beings  ascend  and  descend  in  the 
circle  of  time,  .according  to  the  works  they  have 
performed,  according  to  the  truths  they  have  recog- 
nized. But  in  all  these  worlds  the  law  of  change 
obtains ;  in  none  is  there  exemption  from  birth,  age 
and  death.  The  world  of  the  gods  will  perish  like 
that  of  men,  even  the  world  of  the  formless  will 
not  last  forever ;  but  the  Buddha,  the  Enlightened 
and  truly  Free,  stands  higher  and  will  not  be 
affected  or  disturbed  by  the  collapse  of  the  Universe : 
lSi  fractus  illabatur  orbis,  impavidum  ferient  ruince? 
"  Now,  however,  we  meet  with  a  vein  of  irony, 
which  one  would  have  hardly  expected  in  Buddha. 
Gods  and  devils  he  had  located  ;  to  all  mythological 
and  philosophical  acquisitions  of  the  past  he  had 
done  justice  as  far  as  possible.  Even  fabulous  be- 
ings, such  as  Kagas,  Gandharvas,  and  Garudas,  had 
escaped  the  process  of  dissolution  which  was  to 
reach  them  later  only  at  the  hands  of  comparative 
mythology.  There  is  only  one  idea,  the  idea  of  a 
personal  creator,  in  regard  to  which  Buddha  is  re- 
lentless. 


THE   ORIGIN   OF    BUDDHISM.  33 

"  It  is  not  only  denied,  but  even  its  origin,  like 
that  of  an  ancient  myth,  is  carefully  explained  by 
him  in  its  minutest  details." 

So  far  Max  Muller. 

Buddha  thought  it  not  necessary  to  play  the  part 
of  a  religious  Don  Quixote.  He  made  no  attempt  to 
fight  the  windmills  of  mythological  deities  whose 
existence  he  knew  to  be  doomed.  But  as  soon  as 
confronted  with  a  serious  problem,  he  made  no 
attempt  at  evading  it,  but  met  it  squarely,  and  gave 
to  his  disciples  his  solution  without  equivocation. 

In  spite  of  the  contrast  that  obtains  between 
Buddhism  and  Christianity  in  the  formulation  of 
their  doctrines  about  soul  and  God,  we  are  struck 
by  the  similarity  of  their  ethical  maxims.  Both 
Buddhism  and  Christianity  have  remained  to  a  great 
extent  monkish  religions,  although  neither  Buddha 
nor  Christ  favored  a  monkish  conception  of  life. 
Buddha  said :  "  The  layman  and  the  hermit  are  the 
same  when  only  both  have  banished  the  thought  of 
self."  * 

Among  the  Buddhist  sects  of  Japan  there  is  one 
by  the  name  of  Shinshiu,  which  justly  has  been 
called  the  Buddhistic  Protestantism.  It  is  the  most 
progressive  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  nu- 
merous sect  of  Japan.  Their  priests  eat  fish  and 
meat,  and  are  allowed  to  marry,  because  they  claim 
that  Buddha  had  refused  to  make  any  difference 

*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  xix.  p.  182,  ver.  1292  (Fo- 
Sho-Hing-Tsan-King)  and   "  The  Gospel  of  Buddha,"  chap, 
xviii.  ver.  10. 
3 


34        BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

between  priest  and  layman,  that  austerities  are  of 
no  avail,  and  that  faith  in  Amita  alone,  in  the  infi- 
nite light  of  Buddha,  can  set  us  in  that  state  of  mind 
which  ensures  eternal  salvation.  Their  opposition 
to  a  monkish  morality  is  unquestionably  in  conform- 
ity with  Buddha's  simple  teachings,  the  gist  of 
which  is  contained  in  what  Buddhists  call  the  four 
noble  truths  and  the  eightfold  path  of  righteousness. 
The  four  noble  truths  and  the  eightfold  path  of 
righteousness  are  reiterated  again  and  again  in  the 
sacred  literature  of  Buddhism.  In  order  to  show 
the  spirit  of  Buddhism  in  its  original  purity,  without 
any  admixture  of  our  own  interpretation,  we  here 
present  a  few  unabbreviated  paragraphs  as  they 
stand  in  Prof.  Rhys  Davids's  translation  of  the 
Buddhist  Suttas.* 

THE   FOUNDATION  OF  THE  KINGDOM    OF    RIGHTEOUSNESS. f 

REVERENCE  to  the  Blessed  One,  the  Holy  One,  the 
Fully  Enlightened  One. 

Thus  have  I  heard.  The  blessed  One  was  staying 
at  Benares,  at  the  hermitage  called  Migadaya.  And 
there  the  Blessed  One  addressed  the  company  of  the 
five  Bhikkhus,:}:  and  said : 

*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  XI.  pp.  146-150  and  150-154. 

t  The  expressions  "the  kingdom  of  righteousness,"  "the 
glorious  doctrine,*'  or  "  gospel,"  etc.,  sound  like  imitations  of 
Christian  ideals,  and  yet  those  names  are  genuine  Buddhistic 
terms  and  unquestionably  older  than  Christianity. 

t  Bhikkhus,  monks.  The  monks  here  addressed  are  the  five 
mendicants  who  had  waited  on  nantonnft  while  he  underwent 
austerities,  and  before  he  had  attained  enlightenment. 


THE   ORIGIN    OF   BUDDHISM.  36 

"  There  are  two  extremes,  O  Bhikkhus,  which  the 
man  who  has  given  up  the  world  ought  not  to  follow 
— the  habitual  practice,  on  the  one  hand,  of  those 
things  whose  attraction  depends  upon  the  passions, 
and  especially  of  sensuality — a  low  and  pagan  way 
(of  seeking  satisfaction),  unworthy,  unprofitable,  and 
fit  only  for  the  worldly-minded — and  the  habitual 
practice,  on  the  other  hand,  of  asceticism  (or  self- 
mortification),  which  is  painful,  unworthy  and  un- 
profitable. 

"There  is  a  middle  path,  O  Bhikkhus,  avoiding 
these  two  extremes,  discovered  by  the  Tathagata  * 
— a  path  which  opens  the  eyes,  and  bestows  under- 
standing, which  leads  to  peace  of  mind,  to  the  higher 
wisdom,  to  full  enlightenment,  to  Nirvana ! 

"  What  is  that  middle  path,  O  Bhikkhus,  avoid- 
ing these  two  extremes,  discovered  by  the  Tathagata 
— that  path  which  opens  the  eyes,  and  bestows  un- 
derstanding, which  leads  to  peace  of  mind,  to  the 
higher  wisdom,  to  full  enlightenment,  to  Nirvana  ? 
Verily !  it  is  this  noble  eightfold  path ;  that  is  to 
say: 

"  Eight  views ;    right   aspirations  ;  right  speech 


*  Tathagata  ;  the  usual  epithet  for  Buddha,  and  is  explained 
as  the  Perfect  One,  or  he  who  fulfils.  Prof.  Rhys  Davids  says 
in  a  footnote :  "  It  is  interpreted  by  Buddhaghosa,  in  the 
Samangala  Vilasini  to  mean  that  he  came  to  earth  for  the  same 
purpose,  after  having  passed  through  the  same  training  in 
former  births,  as  all  the  supposed  former  Buddhas;  and 
that,  when  he  had  so  come,  all  his  actions  corresponded  to 
theirs." 


36        BUDDBISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

right  conduct ;  right  livelihood ;  right  effort  ;  right 
mindfulness  ;  and  right  contemplation. 

"This,  O  Bhikkhus,  is  that  middle  path,  avoid- 
ing these  two  extremes,  discovered  by  the  Tatha- 
gata — that  path  which  opens  the  eyes,  and  bestows 
understanding,  which  leads  to  peace  of  mind,  to 
the  higher  wisdom,  to  full  enlightenment,  to  Nir- 
vana. 

"  Now,  this,  O  Bhikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  con- 
cerning suffering. 

"  Birth  is  attended  with  pain,  decay  is  painful, 
disease  is  painful,  death  is  painful.  Union  with  the 
unpleasant  is  painful,  painful  is  separation  from  the 
pleasant ;  and  any  craving  that  is  unsatisfied,  that 
too  is  painful.  In  brief,  the  five  aggregates  which 
spring  from  attachment  (the  conditions  of  individ- 
uality and  their  cause)  *  are  painful. 

"  This,  then,  O  Bhikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  con- 
cerning suffering. 

"  Now  this,  O  Bhikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  con- 
cerning the  origin  of  suffering. 

"  Verily,  it  is  that  thirst  (or  craving),  causing  the 
renewal  of  existence,  accompanied  by  sensual  delight, 
seeking  satisfaction  now  here,  now  there — that  is  to 
say,  the  craving  for  the  gratification  of  the  passions, 

*  One  might  express  the  central  thought  of  this  First  Noble 
Truth  in  the  language  of  the  nineteenth  century  by  saying 
that  pain  results  from  existence  as  an  individual.  It  is  the 
struggle  to  maintain  one's  individuality  which  produces  pain 
—a  most  pregnant  and  far-reaching  suggestion.  See  for  a 
fuller  exposition  the  Fortnightly  Review  for  December, 
1879.— Translator. 


THE   ORIGIN   OF   BUDDHISM.  37 

or  the  craving  for  (a  future)  life,  or  the  craving  for 
success  (in  this  present  life).* 

"  This,  then,  O  Bhikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  con- 
cerning the  origin  of  suffering. 

"'  Now  this,  O  Bhikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  con- 
cerning the  destruction  of  suffering. 

"  Verily,  it  is  the  destruction,  in  which  no  passion 
remains,  of  this  very  thirst,  the  laying  aside  of,  the 
being  free  from,  the  harboring  no  longer  of  this 
thirst. 

"  This,  then,  O  Bhikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  con- 
cerning the  destruction  of  suffering. 

"  Now  this,  O  Bhikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  con- 
cerning the  way  which  leads  to  the  destruction  of 
sorrow.  Verily  !  it  is  this  noble  eightfold  path  ;  that 
is  to  say : 

"  Right  views  ;  right  aspirations  ;  right  speech  ; 
right  conduct ;  right  livelihood  ;  right  effort ;  right 
mindfulness  ;  and  right  contemplation. 

"  This,  then,  O  Bhikkhus,  is  the  noble  truth  con- 
cerning the  destruction  of  sorrow." 

And  when  the  royal  chariot  wheel  of  the  truth 
had  thus  been  set  rolling  onwards  by  the  Blessed 
One,  the  gods  of  the  earth  gave  forth  a  shout,  say- 
ing : 

"  In  Benares,  at  the  hermitage  of  the  Migadaya, 
the  supreme  wheel  of  the  empire  of  Truth  has  been 

*  "  The  lust  of  the  flesh,  the  lust  of  the  eye,  and  the  pride  of 
life"  correspond  very  exactly  to  the  first  and  third  of  these, 
and  would  be  not  inadequate  renderings  of  all  three.— Trans- 
lator. 


38         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

set  rolling  by  the  Blessed  One  —  that  wheel  which 
not  by  any  Samana  or  Brahman,  not  by  any  god, 
not  by  any  Brahma  or  Mara,  not  by  any  one  in  the 
universe,  can  ever  be  turned  back  !  " 


This  is  the  essence  of  Buddha's  doctrine.  This  is 
the  Dharma  in  which  Buddhists  take  refuge. 

This  doctrine  of  the  four  noble  truths  and  the 
eightfold  noble  path  of  righteousness  was  taught  by 
Buddha  with  the  powerful  authority  of  his  impressive 
personality.  He  exemplified  it  in  his  personal  con- 
duct, and  explained  it  in  parables  ;  and  the  mustard- 
seed  of  his  noble  religion  has  become  a  great  tree, 
under  the  branches  of  which  the  nations  of  Asia  have 
found  a  dwelling-place. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  BUDDHISM. 

ORIGINAL   DUALISM. 

BUDDHISM  originated,  as  all  religions  do,  from 
the  desire  to  escape  the  transiency  of  life  with  its 
incidental  vicissitudes  and  to  attain  the  permanent 
and  enduring  bliss  of  an  undisturbed  existence  where 
there  is  no  pain,  no  disease,  no  death,  no  incerti- 
tudes of  any  kind.  As  soon  as  the  prevalence  of 
suffering  was  recognized  as  an  inalienable  con- 
dition of  bodily  existence  the  first  attempt  at 
obtaining  deliverance  from  evil  was  naturally  made 
by  a  mortification  of  the  body  for  the  sake  of 
benefiting  the  soul.  The  body  was  looked  upon 
as  the  source  of  all  misery,  and  a  purely  spiritual 
existence  was  the  ideal  in  which  religious  men  set 
their  hope  of  salvation.  The  body  is  doomed  to  die, 
and  was  therefore  considered  as  an  animated  corpse. 
Our  material  existence  is  a  body  of  death  of  which 
man  must  rid  himself  before  he  can  obtain  the 
deathless  state.  Thus  we  read  in  the  story  of 
Sumedha,  which  serves  as  an  introduction  to  the 
Jatakas : 

"  Even  as  a  man  might  rid  him  of 
A  horrid  corpse  bound  to  his  neck, 
And  then  upon  his  way  proceed, 
Joyous,  and  free,  and  unconstrained  ; 

39 


40         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

"  So  must  I  likewise  rid  me  of 
This  body  foul,  this  charnel-house, 
And  go  my  way  without  a  care, 
Or  least  regret  for  things  behind. 

"  As  men  and  women  rid  them  of 
Their  dung  upon  the  refuse  heap, 
And  go  their  ways  without  a  care, 
Or  least  regret  for  what  they  leave  ; 

"  So  will  I  likewise  rid  me  of 
This  body  foul,  this  charnel-house, 
And  go  my  way  as  if  I  had 
Cast  out  my  filth  into  the  draught.  "  * 

Sumedha  says : 

"  "What  misery  to  be  born  again  ! 
And  have  the  flesh  dissolve  at  death  ! 

"  Subject  to  birth,  old  age,  disease, 
Extinction  will  I  seek  to  find, 
Where  no  decay  is  ever  known, 
Nor  death,  but  all  security."  t 

The  ideal  of  Buddhahood,  accordingly,  was  in  its 
original  shape  the  attainment  of  a  purely  spiritual 
condition  which  it  was  hoped  would  aiford  a  perfect 
emancipation  from  suffering.  It  was  the  same 
yearning  as  that  of  the  early  Christians,  expressed 
in  St.  Paul's  words : 

"  O  wretched  man  that  I  am  !  who  shall  deliver  me  from 
the  body  of  this  death  ?  " 

*  H.  C.  Warren,  in  his  Buddhism  in  Translations,  pp.  7-8. 
See  also  the  passage  quoted  from  Chapter  VI.  of  the  Visuddhi- 
Magga,  p.  300. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  6. 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  41 

Even  Luther,  with  whom  the  monistic  era  of 
Christianity  begins,  speaks  of  his  body  with  the 
utmost  contempt.  The  term  Jfadenaack,  i.  e.,  a  bag 
full  of  food  for  grubs,  is  a  favorite  expression  of  his. 

The  religious  problem,  as  it  presented  itself  to 
the  ascetic  Gautama  before  he  had  attained  to 
Buddhahood,  was  formulated  on  dualistic  principles, 
but  his  final  solution  rested  upon  a  monistic  basis. 
"We  know  little  of  his  philosophical  evolution  and 
the  phases  through  which  he  passed ;  but  the  out- 
come is  unequivocal  in  all  important  questions  that 
form  decisive  test-issues  as  to  the  character  of  his 
system.  He  was  tolerant  and  showed  extreme  pa- 
tience with  all  kinds  of  mythologies,  even  utilizing 
the  superstitions  of  his  age  to  the  enhancement  of 
his  religion,  but  he  was  merciless  in  his  rejection  of 
metaphysicism  and  dualism. 

ANTI-METAPHYSICAL. 

After  Buddha  had  surrendered  the  old  dualism, 
the  traditional  formulation  of  philosophical  problems 
lost  their  meaning ;  they  became  what  we  now  call 
illegitimate  questions;  and  whenever  Buddha  was 
confronted  with  such  illegitimate  questions,  he  either 
refused  to  answer  them  or  declared  openly :  "  The 
question  is  not  rightly  put."  *  His  refusal  to  answer 
such  questions,  which  on  his  plane  of  thought  had 
become  unmeaning  and  irrelevant,  nay,  even  mis- 

*  See,  for  instance,  Warren,  Buddhism  in  Translations, 
pp.  167  and  312. 


42         BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

leading,  can  be  interpreted  as  agnosticism,  or  as  a 
dodge  and  attempt  at  straddling,  only  by  those  who 
utterly  misconceive  the  spirit  of  Buddha's  doctrines. 
"When  bored  with  questions  by  a  wandering  ascetic, 
one  of  those  frivolous  wranglers  who  dispute  merely 
for  the  sake  of  discussion,  Buddha  refuses  to  answer, 
but  when  afterwards  Ananda  accosts  his  master 
he  explains  why  the  wandering  ascetic  received  no 
reply.  The  reason  is  here  again  the  error  involved 
in  the  wrong  formulation  of  the  question.  Thus  if 
he  had  replied  in  the  negative,  saying  that  the  atman 
does  not  survive  death,  the  wandering  ascetic  would 
have  said  "  the  Buddha  teaches  that  there  is  no 
after-life  "  ;  and  if  he  had  replied  in  the  affirmative, 
saying  that  the  atman  survives  death,  the  implica- 
tion would  have  been  that  Buddha  believed  with  the 
Vedanta  philosophers  in  the  existence  of  an  atman. 
Buddha's  monism  is  not  materialism ;  he  does  not 
identify  soul  and  body,  he  only  denies  the  separate 
existence  of  soul-entities.  There  is  soul  and  there  is 
body.  There  are  consciousness-forms  and  bodily- 
forms,  and  both  are  changing  and  developing,  both 
are  subject  to  growth  and  decay.  The  body  is  dis- 
solved, and  consciousness  passes  awav,  yet  their 
forms  reappear  in  new  incarnations.  There  is  death 
and  rebirth,  and  there  is  continuity  of  life  with  its 
special  and  individual  types.  If  the  soul  were  iden- 
tical with  the  body,  it  would  perish  with  it ;  if  it 
were  a  distinct  entity  and  an  immutable  atman,  it 
would"  not  be  affected  by  conduct  and  there  would 
be  no  use  in  leading  a  holy  life.  In  either  case 


THE  PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  43 

there  is  no  need  of  seeking  religion.  Buddha's  solu- 
tion is,  that  there  are  not  two  things  (1)  an  atman 
and  (2)  the  deeds  performed  by  the  atman,  but  there 
is  one  thing — a  soul-activity  (karma),  which  operates 
by  a  continuous  preservation  of  its  deed-forms  or 
samskaras,  which  are  the  dispositions  produced  by 
the  various  functions  of  karma.  There  is  not  a  being 
that  is  born,  acts,  enjoys  itself,  suffers  and  dies  and 
is  reborn  to  die  again  ;  but  simply  birth,  action,  en- 
joyment, suffering,  and  death  take  place.  The  life- 
activity,  the  deeds,  the  karma,  the  modes  of  motion 
in  all  their  peculiar  forms,  alone  are  real :  they  are 
preserved  and  nothing  else.  Man's  soul  consists  of 
the  memory-forms,  or  dispositions,  produced  by 
former  karmas.  There  is  no  self  in  itself,  no  separate 
atman ;  the  self  consists  in  the  deed-forms,  and  every 
creature  is  the  result  of  deeds. 

The  disciples  propose  to  the  Blessed  One  in  the 
SamyuttctrNikaya  this  question  : 

"  Reverend  Sir,  what  are  old  age  and  death  ?  and  what  is  it 
has  old  age  and  death  ?  " 

The  Blessed  One  replies : 

"  The  question  is  not  rightly  put.  O  priest,  to  say  :  '  What 
are  old  age  and  death  ?  and  what  is  it  has  old  age  and  death  ? ' 
and  to  say  :  '  Old  age  and  death  are  one  thing,  but  it  is  an- 
other thing  which  has  old  age  and  death,'  is  to  say  the  same 
thing  in  different  ways. 

"  If ,  O  priest,  the  dogma  obtain  that  the  soul  and  the  body 
are  identical,  then  there  is  no  religious  life ;  or  if,  O  priest, 
the  dogma  obtain  that  the  soul  is  one  tiling  and  the  body  an- 
other, then  also  there  is  no  religious  life.  Both  these  ex- 


44        BUDDHISM  AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

tremes,  O  priest,  have  been  avoided  by  the  Tathagata,  and  it 
is  a  middle  doctrine  he  teaches :  '  On  birth  depend  old  age  and 
death.'  "  (Buddhism  in  Translations,  p.  167.) 

PERSONALITY. 

But  considering  the  practical  importance  of  per- 
sonal effort  in  moral  endeavor,  how  can  the  denial 
of  the  existence  of  a  separate  self  as  the  condition 
of  personality  be  useful  in  religion  ? 

The  answer  is,  that  the  denial  of  the  existence  of 
a  separate  self,  an  atman,  is  not  a  denial  of  the  real 
self  such  as  it  actually  exists  in  man's  personality. 
There  is  no  chariot  in  itself,  but  there  are  chariots ; 
there  are  no  persons  in  themselves,  but  there  are 
persons.  Buddha  does  not  intend  to  wipe  out  the 
personality  of  man,  but  only  the  false  notion  of  the 
metaphysical  character  of  personality.  Not  only 
did  Buddha  always  endeavor  to  adapt  his  teachings 
to  different  personalities,  but  we  find  generally  in 
Buddhism  as  much  stress  laid  upon  the  personal 
relation  of  a  disciple  to  the  master,  as  by  Luther, 
who  used  to  say  that  "  it  is  not  enough  for  a  Chris- 
tian to  know  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Saviour,  he 
must  experience  the  fact  in  his  heart  and  must  be 
able  to  say,  '  Jesus  Christ  has  come  to  save  me  in- 
dividually.' "* 

There  is  a  similar  aspiration  in  Buddhism,  which 

*  "  Darum  ist's  nicht  genug,  dass  einer  glaubt,  es  sei  Gott, 
Christus  habe  gelitten. ,  u.  dergl. ,  sondern  er  muss  f estiglich 
glauben,  dass  Gott  ihm  zur  Seligkeit  ein  Gott  sei,  dass  Christus 
fur  ihn  gelitten  habe,  etc."  (Quoted  by  Kiistlin  in  his  Luther's 
TTieologie.)  Similar  passages  are  frequent  in  Luther's  writ- 
ings. 


•       THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  45 

Buddhagosha,  in  his  comments  on  the  Dhammapada, 
expresses  as  follows : 

"  Now  when  a  Supreme  Buddha  teaches  the  Doctrine,  those 
in  front  and  those  behind,  and  those  beyond  a  hundred  or  a 
thousand  worlds,  and  those  even  who  inhabit  the  abode  of  the 
Sublime  Gods,  exclaim  :  '  The  Teacher  is  looking  at  me. ;  The 
Teacher  is  teaching  the  Doctrine  to  me.'  To  each  one  it  seems 
as  if  the  Teacher  were  beholding  and  addressing  him  alone. 
The  Buddhas,  they  say,  resemble  the  moon  :  as  the  moon  in 
the  midst  of  the  heavens  appears  to  every  living  being  as  if 
over  his  head,  so  the  Buddhas  appear  to  every  one  as  if  stand- 
ing in  front  of  him."  (Buddhism  in  Translations,  p.  470.) 

Far  from  being  an  obliteration  of  individuality, 
the  denial  of  the  fitman  actually  involves  a  liberation 
of  individuality  from  an  error  that  is  liable  to  stunt 
all  mental  growth  and  hinder  man's  free  develop- 
ment. Buddha  takes  out  of  life  the  vanity  of  self, 
which  is  based  upon  the  dualism  of  atman  and 
karma  as  separate  realities.  There  is  no  need  of 
bothering  about  an  atman,  but  it  is  important  to  be 
mindful,  thoughtful,  and  energetic  in  all  that  a  man 
undertakes  and  does,  for  the  karma  is  the  stuff  of 
which  a  man  is  made.  One's  own  personal  en- 
deavor and  achievements  constitute  one's  personality, 
and  this  personality  is  preserved  beyond  death,  as 
we  read : 

"  But  every  deed  a  man  performs 
With  body,  or  with  voice,  or  mind, 
'Tis  this  that  he  can  call  his  own, 
This  with  him  take  as  he  goes  hence. 
This  is  what  follows  after  him 
And  like  a  shadow  ne'er  departs. "  * 

*  Buddhism  in  Translations,  p.  228. 


46         BUDDHISM   AND  ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

These  lines  have  reference  to  the  parable  of  the 
man  whom  his  family,  his  friends,  and  his  property 
leave  when  he  is  cited  before  the  jud,ge,  while  his 
good  deeds  alone  follow  him  through  the  gate  of 
death  and  plead  for  him.  Speaking  without  allegory, 
we  ought  to  say  that  the  deeds,  or  rather  the  deed- 
forms,  are  the  man  himself. 

There  is  no  duality  of  a  doer  and  his  doings,  a 
thinker  and  his  thoughts,  an  enjoyer  and  his  en- 
joyments, a  sufferer  and  his  sufferings,  an  aspirer 
and  his  aspirations.  There  is  not  an  atman  that 
performs  karma ;  but  there  is  karma  which,  wherever 
incarnated  in  an  individual  group,  appears  as  an 
atman.  The  words  doer,  agent,  enjoyer,  etc.,  are 
mere  modes  of  speech.  The  realities  of  soul-life  con- 
sist in  doings,  thoughts,  sufferings,  enjoyments,  and 
aspirations.  Actions  take  place,  and  the  peculiar 
form  of  every  action  is  preserved  as  an  analogous 
disposition  to  repeat  that  same  action  in  the  shape 
of  memory-structures  ;  and  all  living  beings  start 
life  as  the  summed-up  memory  of  their  deeds  in 
former  existences. 

THE    DEATHLESS. 

There  is  no  atman-soul ;  accordingly  there  is  no 
transmigration  of  an  atman-soul ;  yet  there  is  rebirth  : 
there  is  a  reincarnation  of  the  ancestral  karma  by  a 
preservation  and  reproduction  of  the  soul-forms 
transmitted  from  generation  to  generation. 

Here  we  must  make  a  distinction  between  pure 
forms  and  materialized  forms.  By  the  pure  form  of 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF   BUDDHISM.  47 

a  right-angled  triangle  we  mean  the  mathematical 
conception  in  its  abstract  and  absolute  distinctness. 
The  relations  of  the  angles  and  sides  are  definite 
conditions  of  unalterable  rigidity.  They  can  be  for- 
mulated in  theories  which  are  readily  recognized  as 
eternal  verities.  The  materialist  who  believes  that 
material  bodies  alone  are  real,  would  say  that  pure 
forms  are  non-existent,  but  the  mathematician  knows 
that  a  right-angled  triangle  is  a  definite  actuality 
which,  whenever  an  occasion  arises,  will  manifest  it- 
self with  unfailing  exactness.  Manifestations  of 
right-angled  triangles  take  place  in  materialized 
forms,  by  which  we  mean  some  single  drawing  made 
in  ink,  pencil,  or  chalk,  or  a  relation  obtaining  some- 
how among  three  points  represented  by  the  centres 
of  stars  or  indicated  by  rays  of  light.  The  actualiza- 
tion of  a  pure  form  may  be  more  or  less  perfect, 
but  it  always  exemplifies  the  laws  of  pure  form 
and  is,  so  to  speak,  its  incarnation.  In  this  sense 
Plato  speaks  of  ideas  as  being  above  time  and 
space,  and  Schiller  sings  of  the  higher  realm  of 
pure  forms : 

"  In  den  hoheren  Regionen 
Wo  die  reinen  Forinen  wohnen." 

For  ethical  considerations  man  must  learn  to 
identify  himself,  not  with  the  materialization  of  his 
thought  and  aspirations,  but  with  their  forms ;  for 
the  former  are  transient,  the  latter  eternal.  He 
must  let  go  all  attachment  to  the  special  and  partic- 
ular embodiment  in  which  his  soul  appears.  He 
must  find  his  anchorage  in  that  which  cannot  be 


48         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS    CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

destroyed  but  will  last  forever  and  aye.  The  pure 
forms  of  his  soul-being  must  be  understood  as  pos- 
sessing his  body  ;  they  shape  his  brain,  the  nervous 
structures  of  his  thoughts,  the  materialized  forms  of 
his  sentiments  and  aspirations  ;  they  dominate  his 
life,  his  energies,  his  everything,  but  not  vice  versa  : 
his  bodily  incarnation  does  not  lord  it  over  the 
eternal  type  which  in  him  becomes  manifest.  The 
material  elements  do  not  possess  the  directing 
faculty,  for  direction  is  a  formal  principle. 

In  this  sense  Christ  existed  since  eternity  as  the 
divine  Logos  and  became  flesh  in  Jesus  ;  and  Buddha 
descended  from  the  Tusita  Heaven  to  earth  for  the 
purpose  of  being  incarnated  in  the  son  of  Maya. 
In  this  same  sense  Buddhists  speak  of  attaining  to 
the  Bodhi,  i.  e.  enlightenment  or  Buddhahood,  which 
implies  that  the  Bodhi  existed  before  Gautama  found 
it.  In  the  same  sense,  the  right-angled  triangle  and 
its  law  existed  before  Pythagoras  ;  he  did  not  invent 
the  theorem  that  bears  his  name  :  he  discovered  it. 
The  idea  of  a  right-angled  triangle  with  all  its 
essential  relations  dawned  upon  him,  became  incar- 
nated in  him,  manifested  itself  in  him. 

But  here  we  must  pause  a  moment,  for  here  lies  a 
difficulty  which  has  greatly  embarrassed  the  trans- 
lators of  Buddhist  scriptures.  The  Pali  word  rupa 
means  "form,"  but  it  is  frequently  used  in  the 
sense  of  materialized  form  (rupa  Jcayo\  not  in  the 
sense  of  pure  form ;  indeed,  it  must  sometimes  be 
translated  by  body.  Thus  that  which  Plato  and 
Schiller  would  call  pure  form  is  in  Pali  called 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  49 

arupo*  "  that  which  is  without  rupa,  the  bodiless," 
commonly  translated  "  the  formless." 

We  read  in  the  Buddhist  scriptures  that  the 
attainment  of  Nirvana  is  not  possible  unless  we 
comprehend  "  the  formless,"  which  is  the  unmaterial, 
the  eternal,  the  deathless.  This  deathless,  this  un- 
material, this  "formless,"  or  rather  this  eternal 
realm  of  pure  form  the  arupaloco  is  not  an  essence, 
not  an  entity,  not  an  individual  being  or  a  personal 
deity  ;  it  has  no  special  dwelling,  nor  is  it  a  locality, 
or  a  heavenly  abode ;  and  yet  it  is  the  most  im- 
portant truth  to  be  known. 

"  There  is,  O  disciples,  something  not-born,  not-originated, 
not-made,  not-formed.  If,  O  disciples,  there  were  not  this 
not-born,  not-originated,  not-made,  not-formed,  there  would 
be  no  escape  for  the  born,  the  originated,  the  made,  the 
formed."  Uddna,  VIII.,  3. 

The  deathless  is  a  mere  nothing,  if  "  nothing " 
means  absence  of  materiality,  and  yet  it  is  the  most 
important  factor  of  life,  for  it  makes  enlightenment 
possible  and  is  the  condition  of  salvation.  In  the 
Majjhima  Nikaya  (Sutta  26),  in  which  Buddha  de- 
clares that  "the  deathless  has  been  gained,"  the 
theory  is  set  forth  that  the  "  Nothing "  is  not  a 
nonentity,  but  that  it  exists;  and  "of  the  priest 
who  dwells  in  the  realm  of  nothingness  "it  is  said 
that  ' '  he  has  blinded  Mara,  made  useless  the  eye  of 
Mara,  gone  out  of  sight  of  the  Wicked  One. ' ' 

*  Also  spelt  aruppo  and  arupa.    The  neuter  of  arupo  (arupam) 
is  used  as  a  synonym  of  Nirvana. 
4 


50         BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

He  who  clings  to  bodily  form,  i.  e.,  the  material- 
ized incarnation  of  pure  form,  and  identifies  his  self 
witfc  this  compound  of  atoms,  this  aggregation  .of 
material  elements,  is  not  free  from  the  illusion  of 
selfhood ;  he  has  not  found  the  eternal  resting-place 
of  life ;  the  bliss  of  Nirvana,  the  peace  of  his  soul ; 
he  is  driven  round  in  a  whirl  of  eternal  turmoil,  in 
the  samsara  of  worldly  interests,  in  aspirations  for 
transient  goods. 

He  who  has  attained  arupam,  the  formless,  sur- 
renders with  it  all  petulancy  of  self,  for  jealousy, 
spite,  hatred,  pride,  envy,  concupiscence,  vainglory 
— all  these  and  kindred  ambitions — have  lost  their 
sense.  He  is  energetic,  but  without  passion ;  he 
aspires,  but  does  not  cling ;  he  administers,  but  does 
not  regard  himself  an  owner  ;  he  acquires,  but  does 
not  covet.  This  is  expressed  in  the  Milindapanha?- 
where  we  read : 

"Said  the  king,  '  Bhante  Nagasena,  what  is  the  difference 
between  one  who  has  passion  and  one  who  is  free  from  pas- 
sion?' 

"  '  Your  majesty,  the  one  clings,  the  other  does  not  cling.' 
"  '  Bhante,  what  do  you  mean  by  "  clings"  and  "  does  not 
cling"?' 

"  '  Your  majesty,  the  one  covets,  the  other  does  not  covet.' 

" '  Bhante,  this  is  the  way  I  look  at  the  matter :  both  he 

who  has  passion  and  he  who  is  free  from  passion  have  the 

same  wish,  that  his  food,  whether  hard   or  soft,  should  be 

good  ;  neither  wishes  for  what  is  bad.* 

Your  majesty,  he  that  is  not  free  from  passion  experiences 

*  Quoted  from  Henry  Clarke  Warren,  Buddhism  in  Transla- 
tions, p.  421.  See  also  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXXV.,  p. 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  51 

both  the  taste  of  that  food,  and  also  passion  due  to  that  taste, 
while  he  who  is  free  from  passion  experiences  the  taste  of 
that  food,  but  no  passion  due  to  that  taste.' " 

THE   MIDDLE    DOCTRINE. 

Buddha  calls  his  solution  of  the  psychological 
problem  the  middle  doctrine,  because  it  avoids  both 
extremes  of  what,  in  the  terms  of  the  schoolmen, 
may  be  called  extreme  Kealism  and  extreme  Nomi- 
nalism. Buddha  denies  that  there  are  things  in 
themselves  of  any  kind.  Compounds  have  no  exist- 
ence outside  their  parts,  and  man,  like  other  things, 
animals,  plants,  chariots,  worlds,  etc.,  is  a  compound. 
There  is  no  self  in  man  as  a  separate  entity.  Self 
denotes  the  whole  man.  lie  who  says  compounds 
are  things  in  themselves  is  mistaken,  but  he  who 
denies  the  existence  of  compounds,  he  who  proclaims 
the.  doctrine  of  non-existence  is  mistaken  also. 
Compounds  are  real  enough,  the  relation  among 
things  and  their  interaction  are  not  mere  illusions. 
While  there  are  no  things  in  themselves,  there  are 
forms  in  themselves.  Buddhagosha  argues  in  the 
Visudhi-Magga,  Chap.  XVIII. : 

"  Just  as  the  word  '  chariot'  is  but  a  mode  of  expression  for 
axle,  wheels,  chariot-body,  pole,  and  other  constituent  mem- 
bers, placed  in  a  certain  relation  to  each  other,  but  when  we 
come  to  examine  the  members  one  by  one,  we  discover  that 
in  the  absolute  sense  there  is  no  chariot ;  and  just  as  the  word 
'  house '  is  but  a  mode  of  expression  for  wood  and  other  con- 
stituents of  a  house,  surrounding  space  in  a  certain  relation, 
but  in  the  absolute  sense  there  is  no  house ;  and  just  as  the 
word  '  fist '  is  but  a  mode  of  expression  for  the  fingers,  the 
thumb,  etc.,  in  a  certain  relation  ;  and  the  word  '  lute'  for  the 


52        BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

body  of  the  lute,  strings,  etc.,  'army'  for  elephants,  horses, 
etc. ;  '  city '  for  fortifications  ,  houses,  gates,  etc.  ;  '  tree '  fo 
trunk,  branches,  foliage,  etc.,  in  a  certain  relation,  but  when 
we  come  to  examine  the  parts  one  by  one,  we  discover  that  in 
the  absolute  sense  there  is  no  tree  ;  in  exactly  the  same  way 
the  words  '  living  entity '  and  '  atman  '  are  but  a  mode  of  ex- 
pression for  the  presence  of  the  five  attachment  groups,  but 
when  we  come  to  examine  the  elements  of  being  one  by  one, 
we  discover  that  in  the  absolute  sense  there  is  no  living  entity 
there  to  form  a  basis  for  such  figments  as  '  I  am '  or  '  I ' ;  in 
other  words,  that  in  the  absolute  sense  there  is  only  name  and 
form.  The  insight  of  him  who  perceives  this  is  called  knowl- 
edge of  the  truth."  (Ibid.,  p.  133.) 

As  soon  as  we  abandon  the  middle  doctrine  and 
assume  the  existence  of  a  self  which  is  supposed  to 
be  an  entity  that  is  in  possession  of  all  the  parts  of 
a  compound,  we  must  either  assume  that  this  entity 
after  the  dissolution  of  its  parts  will  persist  or  that 
it  will  perish  ;  and  both  views  are  erroneous  because 
they  start  from  a  wrong  premise.  He  who  imagines 
that  his  self  is  immortal  is  mistaken  and  will  cherish 
foolish  ideas  as  to  the  mode  and  place  of  its  future 
residence.  But  he  who  thinks  that  his  self  will 
perish  is  not  less  mistaken  ;  he  is  unnecessarily 
afraid  of  death,  for  there  is  no  self  that  can  perish. 
Both  propositions  are  senseless,  because  based  on 
the  illusions  of  either  an  extreme  realism  or  an  ex- 
treme nominalism. 

He  who  sees  things  as  they  really  are  ceases  to 
cleave  to  existence ;  he  does  not  think  that  sensation 
or  thought  or  any  one  of  the  aggregates  is  the 
atman,  but  for  that  reason  his  personality  is  not 
wiped  out. 


THE   PHILOSOPHY  OF   BUDDHISM.  53 

"  He  ceases  to  attach  himself  to  anything  in  the  world,  and 
being  free  from  attachment,  he  is  never  agitated,  and  being 
never  agitated,  he  attains  to  Nirvana  in  his  own  person." 
(L.  c.  p.  137.) 

NOT   A   DOCTRINE   OF    ANNIHILATION. 

If  man  is  "  name  and  form  "  and  no  self  in  itself, 
the  proposition  seems  to  suggest  itself  that  death 
ends  all;  but  the  doctrine  of  annihilation  is  not 
countenanced  by  any  of  the  orthodox  Buddhists. 
We  read  in  the  Samyutta  Nikaya  (XXII.,  85) : 

' '  Now  at  that  time  the  following  wicked  heresy  had  sprung 
up  in  the  mind  of  a  priest  named  Yamaka  :  '  Thus  do  I  under- 
stand the  doctrine  taught  by  the  Blessed  One,  that  on  the  dis- 
solution of  the  body  the  priest  who  has  lost  all  depravity  is 
annihilated,  perishes,  and  does  not  exist  after  death.' "  (L.  c., 
p.  138.) 

And  a  number  of  priests  who  had  heard  the  re- 
port drew  near  and  said : 

"  Say  not  so,  brother  Yamaka.  Do  not  traduce  the  Blessed 
One ;  for  it  is  not  well  to  traduce  the  Blessed  One.  The  Bless- 
ed One  would  never  say  that  on  the  dissolution  of  the  body 
the  saint  who  has  lost  all  depravity  is  annihilated,  perishes, 
and  does  not  exist  after  death."  (Ibid.) 

Then  Shariputra  instructs  Yamaka  by  teaching 
him  that  there  is  no  such  a  being  as  a  saint  or  a 
man  in  himself,  for  all  his  constituents  are  trans- 
itory and  cannot  be  regarded  as  his  atman  or 
enduring  self ;  the  saint  is  not  bodily  form,  not  sen- 
sation, not  perception,  not  any  of  the  predisposi- 
tions, not  consciousness.  How  then  can  the  saint  be 
annihilated  in  death  ?  All  the  constituents  of  the 
saint  depend  upon  causation,  but  holiness  and  en- 


54        BUDDHISM  AND   ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

lightenment  are  the  deathless  state  which  is  not 
touched  by  death.  The  Visuddhi-Magga  comprises 
this  doctrine  in  these  four  lines,  which  sound  almost 
paradoxical : 

"  Misery  only  doth  exist,  none  miserable. 

No  doer  is  there ;  naught  save  the  deed  is  found. 

Nirvana  is,  but  not  the  man  Who  seeks  it. 

The  Path  exists,  but  not  the  traveller  on  it."* 

And  is  Nirvana  non-existence  ?  N ot  at  all.  It  is 
the  attainment  of  the  deathless  state,  of  immaterial- 
ity, of  pure  form  of  eternal  verity,  of  the  immutable 
and  enduring,  where  there  is  neither  birth  nor  death, 
neither  disease  nor  old  age,  neither  affliction  nor 
misery,  neither  temptation  nor  sin. 

"'Wherein  does  Nirvana  consist?'  And  to  him,  whose 
mind  was  already  averse  to  passion,  the  answer  came  :  '  When 
the  fire  of  lust  is  extinct,  that  is  Nirvana  ;  when  the  fires  of 
hatred  and  infatuation  are  extinct,  that  is  Nirvana ;  when 
pride,  false  belief,  and  all  other  passions  and  torments  are  ex- 
tinct, that  is  Nirvana.'"  (L.  c.,  p.  59.) 

He  who  attains  Nirvana  continues  to  exist  in  his 
personal  identity  as  pure  form  of  a  definite  char- 
acter, but  he  is  without  any  trace  of  clinging  to  a 
particular  incarnation.  Thus  he  is  no  longer  reincar- 
nated in  any  special  individual,  and  this  is  the  sense 
in  which  Buddha  has  passed  away  and  yet  continues 
to  exist  in  his  bodiless  personality,  as  we  read  in  the 
Milindapanha  f : 

"  The  king  said :  '  Is  there  such  a  person  as  the  Buddha, 
Nagasena?' 


*See  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXXV.,  pp.  113-114. 
\L.  c.,  p.  146. 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  55 

"'Yes.' 

"  '  Can  he  then,  Nagasena,  be  pointed  out  as  being  here  and 
there?' 

"  'The  Blessed  One,  O  king,  has  passed  away  by  that  kind 
of  passing  away  in  which  nothing  remains  which  could  tend 
to  the  formation  of  another  individual.  It  is  not  possible  to 
point  out  the  Blessed  One  as  being  here  or  there.'  " 

THE   CONQUEST   OF    DEATH. 

The  surrender  of  the  self-illusion  with  its  preten- 
sions brings  us  practically  to  the  same  maxim  of  life 
which  St.  Paul  sets  forth  in  1  Cor.,  vii.,  29-30 : 

"  But  this  I  say,  brethren,  the  time  is  short :  it  remaineth, 
that  both  they  that  have  wives  be  as  though  they  had  none. 

"  And  they  that  weep,  as  though  they  wept  not ;  and  they 
that  rejoice,  as  though  they  rejoiced  not ;  and  they  that  buy, 
as  though  they  possessed  not." 

This  view  does  not  lead  to  the  neglect  of  the 
body,  but  to  its  being  subservient  to  higher  ends 
and  a  nobler  cause.  The  Buddha  compares  the 
body  to  a  wound  which  we  nurse  although  we  do 
not  love  it.  Nagasena  says : 

"They  who  have  retired  from  the  world  take  care  of  their 
bodies  as  though  they  were  wounds,  without  thereby  becom- 
ing attached  to  them."  (Buddhism  in  Translations,  p.  423. 
Compare  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXXV.,  p.  115.) 

All  vicissitudes  and  afflictions  affect  the  bodily  in- 
carnation, not  the  eternal  soul,  the  pure  form  or  the 
arupam,  or  bodiless,  i.  e.,  that  which  is  without  rupa  ; 
and  thus  the  Samyutta  Nikaya  declares  that  the 
saint  may  be  "  wretched  of  body  "  but  can  never  be 


56         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

"  wretched  of  mind."  The  actuality  of  the  world, 
the  material  reality  of  existence,  the  samsara  is  ab- 
solutely void  of  permanency.  All  is  transient  and 
nothing  endures.  Therefore  he  who  sets  his  heart 
on  anything  of  the  world  or  its  various  realizations 
of  form,  is  sure  to  suffer ;  while  he  who  has  under- 
stood the  emptiness  of  all  material  existence  seeks 
refuge  in  Nirvana,  the  domain  of  eternal  verities 
which,  in  comparison  to  bodily  realizations,  con- 
stitute the  Void,  the  Xothing,  the  existence-less. 
The  eternal  verities  are  immanent  in  all  reality  and 
condition  its  evolution  ;  they  are  the  aim  and  pur- 
pose of  life  ;  they  are,  to  use  Goethe's  words,  "  the 
unattainable  of  which  all  actual  things  are  but  sym- 
bols." They  are  the  nothingness  of  which  we  read 
in  the  Mayjhima  Nikdya  (Sutta  26),  that  he  who 
dwells  in  it  is  "  out  of  the  reach  of  Mara,' '  the  Evil 
One. 

"  He  has  blinded  Mara,  made  useless  the  eye  of  Mara,  gone 
out  of  sight  of  the  Wicked  One."    (Ib.,  p.  348.) 

An  ancient  Pali  verse  (preserved  in  the    Uddna, 
IV.,  4)  characterizes  this  condition  as  follows  : 

"  The  man  whose  mind,  like  to  a  rock, 
Unmoved  stands,  and  shaketh  not ; 
Which  no  delights  can  e'er  inflame, 
Or  provocations  rouse  to  wrath — 
O,  whence  can  trouble  come  to  him, 
Who  thus  hath  nobly  trained  his  mind  ?  " ' 

The  belief  in  self,  a  separate  soul-entity  or  atman, 
is  the  most  serious  obstacle  to  the  attainment  of  the 
*  Buddhism  in  Translations,  p.  315. 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  57 

eternal  and  deathless,  because  the  thought  of  self 
infuses  all  creatures  with  fear  of  dissolution  as  well 
as  a  desire  for  this  particular  and  special  copy  of  its 
own  eternal  being.  The  Visudhi-Mayga  (the  Book 
on  the  Path  of  Purity)  dwells  on  the  subject  in 
Chapter  XXI.,  where  we  read  : 

"  To  one  who  considers  them  [the  constituents  of  being]  in 
the  light  of  their  transitoriness,  the  constituents  of  being  seem 
perishable.  To  one  who  considers  them  in  the  light  of  their 
misery,  they  seem  frightful.  To  one  who  considers  them  in 
the  light  of  their  want  of  an  Ego,  they  seem  empty. 

"  He  who  considers  them  [the  constituents  of  being]  in  the 
light  of  their  transitoriness  abounds  in  faith  and  obtains  the 
unconditioned  deliverance  ;  he  who  considers  them  in  the  light 
of  their  misery,  abounds  in  tranquillity  and  obtains  the  desire- 
less  deliverance  ;  he  who  considers  them  in  the  light  of  their 
want  of  an  Ego,  abounds  in  knowledge  and  obtains  the  empty 
deliverance."  (16.,  p.  379.) 

This  is  said  to  explain  the  stanza  : 

"  Behold  how  empty  is  the  world, 
Mogharaja  !    In  thoughtfulness 
Let  one  remove  belief  in  self 
And  pass  beyond  the  realm  of  death. 
The  king  of  death  can  never  find 
The  man  who  thus  the  world  beholds."  * 

MODERN   PSYCHOLOGY. 

The  world  has  been  greatly  astonished  in  these 
latter  years  by  the  results  reached  by  modern  psycho- 
logists, Herbart,  Fechner,  Weber,  "Wundt,  Ribot, 
etc.,  who  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  there 
is  no  soul-being,  a  theory  which  received  the  paradox- 
ical name  of  "  a  psychology  without  a  soul."  The 
*  Ib.  p.  376. 


58        BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

name  is  misleading,  for  the  truth  is  that  modern 
psychology  discards  the  metaphysical  conception  of 
the  soul  only,  not  the  soul  itself.  The  unity  of  the 
soul  has  ceased  to  be  a  monad,  an  atomistic  unity, 
and  is  recognized  as  a  unification.  The  personality 
of  a  man  is  a  peculiar  idiosyncrasy  of  psychic  forms, 
a  system  of  sensations,  impulses,  and  motor  ideas, 
but  it  is  not  a  monad,  not  a  distinct  entity,  not  a 
separate  unit.  In  a  word,  there  is  no  soul-entity,  or 
soul-substance,  or  soul-substratum,  that  is  possessed 
of  sensations,  impulses,  and  motor  ideas  ;  but  all  the 
sensations,  impulses,  and  motor  ideas  of  a  man  are 
themselves  part  and  parcel  of  his  soul.  Mr.  Hegeler 
expresses  it  by  saying :  "  I  have  not  ideas,  but  I  am 
ideas." 

The  modern  theory  of  the  soul  is  not  quite  new, 
for  it  was  clearly  outlined  by  Kant,  who  counted  the 
notion  of  a  distinct  ego-soul  as  a  contradiction,  or, 
as  he  termed  it,  one  of  the  paralogisms  of  pure  rea- 
son. He  did  not  exactly  deny  the  separate  existence 
of  an  ego,  by  which  he  understands  apperception  as 
a  unit,  viz.,  self-consciousness,  but  he  proved  the  in- 
consistency of  the  assumption  and  retained  the 
notion  only  on  practical  grounds,  because  he  argued 
that  the  ego-conception  is  an  idea  without  Avhich 
ethics  would  fall  to  the  ground.  Theoretically  he 
rejected  the  existence  of  an  ego-soul,  but  for  the 
sake  of  morality  he  retained  it  as  a  postulate  of 
practical  reason. 

The  ego-soul  is  nothing  but  the  ancient  and  famed 
thing-in-itself  in  the  province  of  psychology.  Met- 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF  BUDDHISM.  59 

aphysicians  of  the  old  school  believe  that  philoso- 
phy consists  in  the  search  for  the  thing-in-itself, 
while  the  new  positivist  abandons  the  idea  that 
there  is  a  separate  entity  behind  or  within  the  parts 
of  things.  There  is  no  watch-in-itself  ;  but  a  pecul- 
iar combination  of  wheels  and  other  mechanical 
contrivances,  together  with  a  dial  and  the  movable 
hands  on  the  dial,  is  called  a  watch.  This  is  as  little 
denial  of  the  existence  of  watches  as  the  new  psy- 
chology is  a  psychology  without  a  soul.  Yet  the 
enemies  of  the  new  positivism  will  still  insist  that 
the  denial  of  things-in-themselves  implies  a  philo- 
sophical nihilism. 

But  the  new  psychology  is  still  older  than  Kant. 
As  the  doctrine  of  a  separate  soul  prevailed  in  India 
among  the  Brahmans,  so  the  denial  of  the  existence 
of  a  separate  soul  was  pronounced  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago  by  that  school  of  thought  which 
under  the  leadership  of  the  great  Shakyamuni  grew 
up  in  opposition  to  Brahmanism  and  became  known 
by  the  name  of  Buddhism.  Not  only  are  the  sim- 
ilarities that  obtain  between  modern  psychology  and 
Buddhism  striking,  but  we  meet  also  with  the  same 
misconceptions  and  objections.  The  denial  of  the 
existence  of  a  soul-entity  is  supposed  to  be  a  denial 
of  the  soul  and  also  of  its  immortality  or  its  reincar- 
nation. 

PROFESSOR  OLDENBERG'S  VIEW. 

Among  the  expounders  of  Buddhism  Professor 
Oldenberg  of  Kiel  ranks  high.  There  are  others 
that  are  his  equal,  but  there  is  perhaps  none  who  is 


60         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

his  superior  in  scholarship.  But  with  all  his  philolo- 
gical knowledge,  the  learned  Professor  is  sadly  de- 
ficient in  philosophical  comprehension.  He  appears 
absolutely  unable  to  grasp  the  significance  of  the 
Buddhistic  soul-conception,  and  since  his  book  on 
Buddha  has  become  a  great  authority,  in  Germany 
almost  the  sole  authority,  from  which  our  reading 
public  take  their  opinions  on  Buddhism  ready-made, 
his  misconceptions  have  become  instilled  into  the 
minds  of  European  and  American  thinkers,  and  it 
will  be  worth  while  to  point  out  the  deficiencies  of 
his  propositions. 

H.  Dharmapala,  the  secretary  of  the  Maha-Bodhi 
Society  and  editor  of  the  Maha-Bhodi  Journal,  the 
official  delegate  of  Cey  lonese  Buddhism  to  the  Chicago 
Parliament  of  Religions,  wrote  sorrowfully  to  me 
two  years  ago : 

"  Professor  Oldenberg,  the  erudite  scholar,  has  not  grasped 
the  spirit  of  the  Dharma.  He  has  translated  carefully  the 
Pali  words, — and  that  is  all.  A  philologist  may  dissect  the 
root  of  a  Pali  word,  but  it  does  not  make  him  know  the  spirit 
of  Buddhism." 

I  have  greatly  profited  by  Professor  Oldenberg's 
researches,  which,  considered  as  philological  lucu- 
brations, are  very  valuable,  but  I  have,  after  all,  felt 
constrained  to  adopt  Mr.  Dharmapala's  opinion.  I 
have  done  so,  however,  not  without  hesitation,  and 
not  without  having  previously  tried  to  reach  a  sat- 
isfactory explanation  of  his  position.  I  shall  here 
briefly  call  attention  to  his  presentation  of  the  Bud- 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  61 

dhist  soul-conception  and  then  point  out  the  fallacies 
of  his  views.  Professor  Oldenberg  says  in  the 
chapter  entitled  "  The  Soul : " 

"It  is  not  incorrect  to  say  that  Buddhism  denies  the  exist- 
ence of  soul,  but  this  must  not  be  understood  in  a  sense  which 
would  in  any  way  give  this  thought  a  materialistic  stamp.  It 
might  be  said  with  equal  propriety  that  Buddhism  denies  the 
existence  of  the  body.  The  body,  and  in  the  same  sense  the 
soul  also,  does  not  exist  as  distinct  and  self-sustaining  sub- 
stances, but  only  as  a  complex  of  manifold  inter-connected 
processes  of  origination  and  decease.  Sensations,  perceptions, 
and  all  those  processes  which  make  up  the  inner  life,  crowd 
upon  one  another  in  motley  variety  ;  in  the  centre  of  this 
changing  plurality  stands  consciousness  (vifinana),  which,  if 
the  body  be  compared  to  a  state,  may  be  spoken  of  as  the  ruler 
of  this  state."*  But  consciousness  is  not  essentially  different 
from  perceptions  and  sensations,  the  comings  and  goings  of 
which  it  at  the  same  time  superintends  and  regulates ;  it  is 
also  a  Sankhara,  and  like  all  other  Sankharas,  it  is  changeable 
and  without  substance." 

Professor  Oldenberg  adds : 

"We  must  here  divest  ourselves  wholly  of  all  customary 
modes  of  thinking.  We  are  accustomed  to  realize  our  inner 
life  as  a  comprehensible  factor,  only  when  we  are  allowed  to 
refer  its  changing  ingredients,  every  individual  feeling,  every 
distinct  act  of  the  will,  to  one  and  the  same  identical  ego,  but 

*  "The  following  passage  is  often  repeated  in  the  sacred 
texts  (e.g. ,  in  the  '  Samannaphala  Sutta ')  :  '  This  is  my  body, 
the  material,  framed  out  of  the  four  elements,  begotten  by 
my  father  and  mother  ....  but  that  is  my  conscious- 
ness, which  clings  firmly  thereto,  is  joined  to  it.  Like  a 
precious  stone,  beautiful  and  valuable,  octahedral,  well  pol- 
ished, clear  and  pure,  adorned  with  all  perfection,  to  which  a 
string  is  attached,  blue  or  yellow,  red  or  white,  or  a  yellowish 
band." 


62        BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

this  mode  of  thinking  is  fundamentally  opposed  to  Buddhism. 
Here  as  everywhere  it  condemns  that  fixity  which  we  are 
prone  to  give  to  the  current  of  incidents  that  come  and  go  by 
conceiving  a  substance,  to  or  in  which  they  might  happen. 
A  seeing,  a  hearing,  a  conceiving,  above  all  a  suffering,  takes 
place  :  but  an  existence,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  seer, 
the  hearer,  the  sufferer,  is  not  recognized  in  Buddhist  teach- 
ing." (Buddha.  By  Dr.  Hermann  Oldenberg.  English  Trans- 
lation, p.  253.) 

This  is  exactly  the  same  as  in  modern  psychology. 
The  assumption  of  a  soul-substance  has  been  found 
to  be  a  perfectly  redundant  hypothesis.  The  soul  of 
man  with  all  its  various  structures,  or,  as  Buddhists 
would  say,  "  sankharas,"  is  now  conceived  as  a  pro- 
duct of  evolution.  Life  develops  the  various  sense- 
organs  in  response  to  the  stimuli  of  the  surrounding 
world.  The  function  of  seeing  which  is  a  reaction 
taking  place  in  response  to  the  impact  of  the  ether- 
waves  of  light,  results  in  the  appearance  of  eyes,  the 
function  of  hearing  being  a  reaction  in  response  to 
the  impact  of  the  air-waves  of  sound,  produces  the 
ear,  and  the  interaction  among  the  senses  begets 
thoughts.  The  translator  of  Oldenberg's  book,  Mr. 
William  Hoey,  is  not  happy  in  his  selection  of  words, 
for  he  says  in  the  passage  quoted  : 

"  Sensations,  perceptions,  and  all  the  processes  which  make 
up  the  inner  life,  crowd  upon  one  another  in  motley  variety." 

Where  Oldenberg  speaks  of  ineinanderstromen 
(streaming  one  into  the  other),  the  expression  "  mot- 
ley variety  "  is  a  redundant  addition,  and  conveys 
the  idea  that  Buddhistic  philosophy  'regards  the  soul 
as  a  motley  crowd  of  processes.  Oldenberg  perused 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  63 

the  manuscript  before  it  went  to  press,  and  it  is 
probable  that  he  took  no  offence  at  the  expression  ; 
indeed  the  context  appears  to  justify  the  translator. 
We  would  not  hold  Oldenberg  responsible  for  mis- 
translations, but  English  readers  kno\v  him  through 
the  translation  only,  and  for  their  benefit  we  feel 
urged  to  add  a  few  words  in  explanation. 

Far  from  regarding  the  inter-relations  of  thoughts 
and  sensations  as  a  chance  conglomeration,  Nagasena, 
the  famous  expositor  of  Buddhistic  philosophy,  makes 
the  very  opposite  statement  which  in  spite  of  its 
importance,  is  nowhere  mentioned  in  Professor 
Olden  berg's  work  on  Buddha. 

"We  read  in  the  Milindapanha  : 

"It  is  by  a  process  of  evolution  that  the  soul-structures 
(sankharas)  come  to  be." 

And  this  statement  is  inculcated  again  and  again, 
not  less  than  seven  times — a  strange  anticipation  of 
the  evolution  theory  !  And  then  we  read  that  these 
soul-faculties  that  originate  through  evolution  "  are 
not  combined  indiscriminately  "  (I.  6,  Sacred  Books 
of  the  East,  XXXY.,  p.  87).  "  First  is  sight  and  then 
thought,"  for  "all  that  happens  happens  through 
natural  slope "  (p.  90)  "  because  of  habit "  (pp.  89 
and  91)  and  "  on  account  of  an  association  "  (p.  89). 
In  the  same  sense  modern  psychologists  speak  of  the 
"  path  of  least  resistance,"  and  the  principle  of  asso- 
ciation is  so  highly  appreciated  that  the  English 
school  calls  its  doctrine  the  "  psychology  of  asso- 
ciation." There  is  certainly  no  justification  for  such 


64        BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

a  term  as  "  motley  variety  "  in  characterizing  Bud- 
dhist psychology.  On  the  contrary,  we  should  be 
astonished  at  the  anticipations  of  the  most  modern 
ideas. 

Those  who  are  accustomed  to  refer  all  psychic 
activity  to  one  and  the  same  identical  ego,  must,  as 
Professor  Oldenberg  says,  divest  themselves  of  their 
customary  modes  of  thinking  ;  and  he  tries  hard  to 
do  so  himself,  but  he  does  not  succeed. 

The  new  psychology  is,  in  fact,  as  much  simpler 
than  the  old  one  as  the  Copernican  system  is  simpler 
than  the  Ptolemaic  system,  but  in  order  to  appreciate 
this  truth  we  must  be  acquainted  with  the  facts. 
The  geocentric  astronomy  appears  natural  to  him 
who  believes  that  there  is  an  upside  and  a  down,  not 
only  on  earth,  but  also  in  the  heavens  ;  and  the 
egocentric  psychology  is  that  childlike  soul-con- 
ception which  knows  nothing  of  evolution,  but  as- 
sumes that  a  stork  or  other  messenger  brings  into 
the  world  at  the  moment  of  birth  a  soul,  we  do  not 
know  whence,  which  soul  is  made  the  lord  of  the  new- 
born baby  with  all  his  inherited  tendencies.  A 
certain  amount  of  knowledge  is  necessary  to  com- 
prehend the  new  views  in  both  sciences,  but  he  who 
has  outgrown  his  mental  swaddling  clothes  will  not 
fail  to  abandon  both  the  geocentric  view  in  astronomy 
and  the  egocentric  view  in  psychology. 

VACCHAGOTTA'S  QUESTION. 

Professor  Oldenberg  believes  that  not  only  the 
negation  of  the  ego  but  also  the  negation  of  an 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  65 

eternal  future  must  be  regarded  as  the  correct  solu- 
tion of  the  Buddhistic  dialectic,  and  he  claims  that 
this  was  not  openly  pronounced  by  the  Buddha  be- 
cause he  feared  to  shock  the  hearts  that  quailed  be- 
fore the  nothing.  And  yet  Oldenberg  quotes  at  the 
same  time  the  passage  of  the  Samyuttaka  Nikdya 
in  which  the  doctrine  of  annihilation  is  squarely  de- 
nounced as  a  heresy.  We  read  : 

"  '  At  this  time  a  monk  named  Yamaka  had  adopted  the 
following  heretical  notion:  "I  understand  the  doctrine 
taught  by  the  Exalted  One  to  be  this,  that  a  monk  who  is  free 
from  sin,  when  his  body  dissolves,  is  subject  to  annihilation, 
that  he  passes  away,  that  he  does  not  exist  beyond  death."" 
(Oldenberg,  Buddha,  Engl.  ed.,  p.  281.) 

When  Sariputta  convinces  Yamaka  that  he  does 
not  even  in  this  world  appreciate  the  Perfect  One, 
the  monk  confesses  his  error  and  he  says  : 

"  '  Such,  indeed,  was  hitherto,  friend  Sariputta,  the  heretical 
view  which  I  ignorantly  entertained.  But  now  when  I  hear 
the  venerable  Sariputta  expound  the  doctrine,  the  heretical 
view  has  lost  its  hold  of  me,  and  I  have  learned  the  doc- 
trine."' (Ib.,  p.  282.) 

In  spite  of  innumerable  passages  which  prove 
that  Nirvana  is  not  annihilation,  Oldenberg  declares 
that  "  the  doctrine  that  there  is  no  ego  is  equivalent 
to  the  proposition  :  The  Nirvana  is  annihilation." 
Professor  Oldenberg  adds : 

"  But  we  can  well  understand  why  these  thinkers,  who  were 
in  a  position  to  realize  this  ultimate  consequence  and  to  bear 
it,  abandoned  the  erection  of  it  as  an  official  dogma  of  the 
Buddhist  order.  There  were  enough,  and  more  than  enough 

5 


66         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CKITICS. 

of  hopes  and  wishes,  from  which  he  who  desired  to  follow  the 
Sakya's  son,  had  to  sever  his  heart.  Why  present  to  the  weak 
the  keen  edge  of  the  truth  ;  the  victor's  prize  of  the  delivered 
is  the  Nothing?  True,  it  is  not  permissible  to  put  falsehood 
in  the  place  of  truth,  but  it  is  allowable  to  draw  a  well-meant 
veil  over  the  picture  of  the  truth,  the  sight  of  which  threatens 
the  destruction  of  the  unprepared.  What  harm  did  it  do  ? 
That  which  was  alone  of  intrinsic  worth  and  essential  to  excite 
the  struggle  for  deliverance  was  maintained  in  unimpaired 
force,  the  certainty  that  deliverance  is  to  be  found  only  where 
joys  and  sorrows  of  this  world  have  ceased.  Was  the  eman- 
cipation of  him,  who  knew  how  to  free  himself  from  every- 
thing transitory,  not  perfect  enough  ?  Would  it  become  more 
perfect,  if  he  were  driven  to  acknowledge  that  beside  the 
transitory  there  is  only  the  Nothing?  "  (76.,  273,  274.) 


Buddha,  it  is  true,  limited  himself  to  that  which 
conduces  to  deliverance,  holiness,  peace,  and  en- 
lightenment, and  gave  no  answer  to  questioners  who 
were  not  prepared  to  understand  his  doctrine. 
Thus  Oldenberg  quotes  the  following  passage  from 
the  Samyuttaka  Nikdya  : 

" 'Then  the  wandering  monk*  Vacchagotta  went  to  where 
the  Exalted  One  was  staying.  When  he  had  come  near  him 
he  saluted  him.  When,  saluting  him,  he  had  interchanged 
friendly  words  with  him,  he  sat  down  beside  him.  Sitting 
beside  him  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  spake  to  the 
Exalted  One,  saying  :  "  How  does  the  matter  stand,  venerable 
Gotama,  is  there  the  ego  (atta)  ?  " ' 

"When  he  said  this,  the  Exalted  One  was  silent. 

"  '  How,  then,  venerable  Gotama,  is  there  not  the  ego  ? ' 

"*A  monk  of  a  non-Buddhistic  sect.  The  dialogue  here 
translated  is  to  be  found  in  the  Samynttaka  Nikdya,  Vol.  II., 
fol.  tan. 


THE   PHILOSOPHY    OF    BUDDHISM.  67 

"  And  still  the  Exalted  One  maintained  silence.  Then  the 
wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  rose  from  his  seat  and  went 
away. 

' '  But  the  venerable  Ananda,  when  the  wandering  monk 
Vacchagotta  had  gone  to  a  distance,  soon  said  to  the  Exalted 
One  :  '  Wherefore,  sire,  has  the  Exalted  One  not  given  an 
answer  to  the  questions  put  by  the  wandering  monk  Vaccha- 
gotta ? ' 

"  '  If  I,  Ananda,  when  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta 
asked  me  :  "Is  there  the  ego ? "  had  answered  :  "  The  ego  is," 
then  that,  Ananda,  would  have  confirmed  the  doctrine  of  the 
Samanas  and  Brahmanas  who  believe  in  permanence.  If  I, 
Ananda,  when  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  asked  me  : 
"Is  there  not  the  ego?"  had  answered:  "The  ego  is  not," 
then  that,  Ananda,  would  have  confirmed  the  doctrine  of  the 
Samanas  and  Brahmanas,  who  believe  in  annihilation.  If  I, 
Ananda,  when  the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  asked  me  : 
"  Is  there  the  ego  ?  "  had  answered  :  "  The  ego  is,"  would  that 
have  served  my  end,  Ananda,  by  producing  in  him  the  knowl- 
edge :  all  existences  (dhamma)  are  non-ego  ? ' 

"  '  That  it  would  not,  sire.' 

' ' '  But  if  I,  Ananda,  when  the  wandering  monk  Vaccha- 
gotta asked  me:  "Is  there  not  the  ego?"  had  answered: 
"  The  ego  is  not,"  then  that,  Ananda,  would  only  have  caused 
the  wandering  monk  Vacchagotta  to  be  thrown  from  one 
bewilderment  into  another  :  "  My  ego,  did  it  not  exist  before  ? 
but  now  it  exists  no  longer. " ' ' 

Oldenberg's  interpretation  of  this  passage  is  as 
follows : 

"  We  see :  the  person  who  has  framed  this  dialogue  has  in 
his  thought  very  nearly  approached  the  consequence  which 
leads  to  the  negation  of  the  ego.  It  may  almost  be  said  that, 
though  probably  he  did  not  wish  to  express  this  consequence 
with  overt  consciousness,  yet  he  has  in  fact  expressed  it.  If 
Buddha  avoids  the  negation  of  the  existence  of  the  ego,  he 
does  so  in  order  not  to  shock  a  weak-minded  hearer." 
(lb.,  272,  273.) 


68         BUDDHISM   AND    ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

Any  one  who  understands  the  doctrine  of  modern 
psychology  will  appreciate  Buddha's  silence,  which 
is  amply  explained  by  Buddha's  words.  Buddha 
refuses  to  answer  the  questions  of  Yacchagotta,  but 
he  gives  a  satisfactory  explanation  to  Ananda. 

It  appears  that  Vacchagotta  was  a  man  who  ex- 
hibited hopeless  confusion  concerning  the  funda- 
mental notions  of  the  Buddhist  psychology.  Bud- 
dha, it  is  true,  denied  the  existence  of  an  ego-soul ; 
he  denied  that  that  something  in  man  Avhich  says 
"  I  "  can  be  regarded  as  a  metaphysical  soul-princi- 
ple lording  over  all  the  faculties  of  man ;  but 
Buddha  does  not  deny  the  reality  of  man's  actual 
soul,  his  sensations  and  motor  ideas;  he  does  not 
deny  the  presence  of  consciousness,  nor  that  there 
is  a  psychic  structure  in  him  that  says  "  I."  On  the 
other  hand,  he  does  not  teach  that  the  soul  of  man 
(his  sankharas)  will  be  annihilated  in  death.  He 
teaches  reincarnation,  man's  soul-structures  will  re- 
appear, or  rather  they  continue  to  exist  after  death. 
They  are  impressed  upon  others,  and  there  is  no 
annihilation ;  they  are  preserved  exactly  in  the  way 
in  which  they  manifested  themselves.  Thus  Yac- 
chagotta's  question  could  not  be  answered  with  a 
straightforward  Yes  or  No.  A  simple  Yes  or  No 
would  under  all  conditions  simply  have  increased 
the  questioner's  confusion.  The  question  could  be 
answered  only  after  a  discussion  and  complete  ex- 
planation of  the  meaning  of  the  term  ego,  which  for 
reasons  not  mentioned  in  the  dialogue  the  Buddha 
did  not  see  fit  to  make.  Probably  he  deemed  it  a 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF    BUDDHISM.  69 

waste  of  time  to  have  a  controversy  with  a  profes- 
sional controversialist  and  therefore  refused  to 
accept  his  challenge. 

Suppose  a  carpenter's  apprentice  without  educa- 
tion who  understood  nothing  of  mathematics,  had 
approached  the  late  Professor  Gauss  of  Gottingen 
and  asked  him :  "  I  understand  that  the  Professor 
denies  the  reality  of  circles  and  lines,  that  he  declares 
they  are  purely  mental,  ideal  products  of  imagina- 
tion, and  quite  unsubstantial  ?  Will  not  the  learned 
Professor  answer  my  question  squarely  and  in  a 
straightforward  manner,  without  reserve  and  with- 
out shirking  the  issue,  Is  mathematics  substantial 
or  is  it  not  substantial  ?  "  What  would  Professor 
Gauss  have  said?  Had  he  said,  "mathematical 
figures  are  substantial,"  the  apprentice  would  have 
acquired  an  erroneous  notion  regarding  the  nature 
of  mathematics ;  but  had  the  Professor  said,  "  Math- 
ematics are  unsubstantial  and  purely  ideal,"  the 
young  fellow  would  have  thought  that  mathemati- 
cal constructions  were  arbitrary  and  imaginary  like 
dreams.  Professor  Gauss  would  probably  not  have 
answered  the  question  at  all,  for  whatever  he  might 
have  said,  it  would  have  been  bewildering  to  the 
questioner.  Now,  should  we  say,  on  reading  the 
report  of  such  an  interview,  that  Professor  Gauss 
had  practically  taught  the  non-existence  of  mathe- 
matics ?  And  could  we  presume  that  we  understood 
why  he  avoided  to  draw  the  last  conclusion  of  his 
doctrine;  namely,  for  the  reason  that  he  did  not 
want  to  shock  a  weak-minded  hearer  who  still 


70         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

clung  to  the  idea  that  there  is  a  substance  of  mathe- 
matics ? 

Professor  Oldenberg's  interpretation  of  the  pass- 
age quoted  from  the  Samyuttaka  Nikaya,  would 
make  of  the  Buddha  a  hypocrite  or  a  coward,  for  it 
represents  him  as  not  willing  to  concede  the  last 
consequence  of  his  doctrine  and  without  directly 
telling  a  lie  as  trying  to  make  a  false  impression 
upon  his  interviewer.  If  Yacchagptta  had  been  one 
of  Buddha's  followers,  there  might  have  been  a  rea- 
son for  Buddha's  not  shocking  his  religious  faith,  but 
Vacchagotta  belonged  to  a  non-Buddhistic  sect,  and 
his  question  was  not  made  in  anxiety  or  with  quiv- 
ering lips.  The  context  of  the  passage  refutes  Pro- 
fessor Oldenberg's  interpretation. 

Why  not  understand  the  passage  as  it  reads  ?  Had 
the  Buddha  said  "  the  ego  is  not,"  Vacchagotta  would 
imagine  that  the  Buddha  believed  in  annihilation, 
a  doctrine  Avhich  is  unequivocally  condemned  in  the 
Buddhist  canon  as  a  heresy.  According  to  Professor 
Oldenberg,  however,  this  would  be  the  true  import 
of  the  Buddhist  religion.  Yacchagotta,  relying  on 
the  fact  that  his  ego-consciousness  was  real,  would 
say  :  "  Did  not  my  ego  exist  before  ?  and  now  I  am 
told  that  there  is  no  ego."  In  the  same  Avay  the 
hypothetical  carpenter's  apprentice  in  his  interview 
with  Professor  Gauss  would  have  said  :  "  The  lines 
which  I  use  in  measuring  beams  and  boards  are 
real ;  and  yet  this  man  who  is  supposed  to  be  a  great 
authority  in  mathematics  tells  me  that  mathematical 
lines  are  purely  ideal !  "  We  cannot  help  thinking 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  71 

that  if  Professor  Oldenberg  had  asked  the  Buddha 
whether  or  not  he  taught  the  immortality  of  the 
ego,  the  Buddha  would  have  given  him  the  same 
answer  as  he  did  Yacchagotta  :  he  would  have  re- 
mained silent. 

Professor  Oldenberg  takes  a  denial  of  the  existence 
of  the  ego-soul  as  a  denial  of  the  existence  of  the  soul 
itself,  in  the  same  way  that  the  carpenter's  appren- 
tice might  have  understood  that  Professor  Gauss, 
not  believing  in  a  mathematical  substance,  denied 
the  existence  of  mathematics  altogether.  Truly,  to 
understand  Buddhism,  we  must  have  an  inkling  of 
the  fundamental  notions  of  philosophy,  and  with  all 
due  respect  for  Professor  Oldenberg's  philological 
erudition,  we  cannot  help  saying  that  philosophical 
comprehension  is  a  weakness  of  his  which  renders 
him  unable  to  grasp  the  meaning  of  Buddhism. 

The  soul,  according  to  Buddhism,  does  not  consist 
of  substance,  but  consists  of  sankharas,  which  are 
sentient  structures  or  forms  produced  by  deeds,  by 
karma,  or  function.  A  man's  personality  is  name 
and  form.  The  name  may  be  preserved  and  the 
form  may  reappear  in  new  generations.  The  indivi- 
dual dies,  but  its  form  continues  by  rebirth.  There 
is  no  individuality  in  the  sense  of  the  Brahmanical 
atman  theory,  but  the  individuality  of  a  man,  his 
name  and  form  are  for  that  reason  real  enough ;  and 
name  and  form  are  either  singly,  or  sometimes  to- 
gether, preserved  and  reindividualized.  There  is  a 
continuity  in  life  in  which  the  same  form  is  preserved, 
and  this  continuous  preservation  of  form  is  all  that 


72         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

is  and  can  be  meant  by  sameness  of  personality. 
This  is  the  secret  (if  there  be  any  secret  about  it)  of 
the  Buddhist  psychology. 

IS  NIBVANA  ANNIHILATION  ? 

Professor  Oldenberg's  conception  of  Buddhism 
differs  from  mine ;  he  says  in  a  letter  to  me  : 

"Buddhism,  in  my  opinion,  suffers  from  the  contradiction, 
historically  quite  conceivable,  that  on  the  one  hand,  it  retains 
the  old,  concrete,  and  popular  conception  of  a  transmigration 
of  the  soul,  on  the  other  hand  dissolves  in  its  philosophy  the 
idea  of  a  soul  as  a  substratum,  an  ego-being.  This  is  a  contra- 
diction which  will  never  be  overcome  by  your  attempt  at  sub- 
limating the  category  of  karma.  Had  Buddha  not  believed  in 
a  transmigration  of  the  soul,  suicide  should  have  appeared  to 
him  as  the  quickest  and  best  adapted  means  of  making  an  end 
of  suffering.  A  few  drops  of  prussic  acid  would  be  a  better, 
and  at  any  rate  a  more  rapid  remedy  than  the  holy  eightfold 
path." 

If  this  opinion  of  the  learned  Pali  Professor  be 
tenable,  the  Buddha,  who  is  generally  regarded  as 
one  of  the  keenest  thinkers  that  ever  lived  on  earth, 
would  have  both  denied  the  existence  of  a  thing  and 
at  the  same  time  have  taught  that  it  migrated  from 
place  to  place.  And  we  are  requested  to  believe 
that  the  Buddha  should  have  been  guilty  of  such 
a  gross  contradiction !  No,  I  would  rather  run  the 
risk  of  doubting  the  infallibility  of  a  German  pro- 
fessor ! 

While  Professor  Oldenberg's  summary  solution  is 
prima  facie  improbable,  it  is  at  the  same  time  based 
upon  incorrectly-stated  facts.  Buddhism  teaches 


THE    PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  73 

reincarnation,  but  it  does  not  teach  the  migration  of 
the  soul.  Professor  Oldenberg's  book,  although 
good  in  many  respects,  is  very  deficient  in  its  ex- 
position of  the  Buddhist  psychology,  which  is  just 
the  most  important  part  of  Buddhism.  Oldenberg 
must  have  overlooked  the  passages  in  which  the 
theory  of  soul-migration,  in  the  sense  of  an  ego-soul 
migrating  from  one  body  into  another,  is  rejected. 
Buddhism  denies  that  the  soul  is  a  substance,  and  in 
spite  of  Professor  Oldenberg's  statement  to  the 
contrary,  it  denies  also  most  emphatically  and  unequi- 
vocally that  there  can  be  any  transmigration  or 
transportation  of  soul-substance.  Yet  Buddhism 
asserts  the  reappearance  of  the  same  soul-forms. 
We  read  in  the  Questions  of  King  Milinda,  III.,  5, 
(Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XXXV.,  p.  Ill)  : 


"  Where  there  is  no  transmigration,  Nagasena,  can  there  be 
rebirth  ?  " 

"  Yes,  there  can." 

"  But  how  can  that  be  ?    Give  me  an  illustration." 

"  Suppose  a  man,  O  king,  were  to  light  a  lamp  from  another 
lamp,  can  it  be  said  that  the  one  transmigrates  from,  or  to,  the 
other?" 

"  Certainly  not." 

"  Just  so,  great  king,  is  rebirth  without  transmigration." 

"  Give  me  a  further  illustration." 

;'  Do  you  recollect,  great  king,  having  learnt,  when  you  were 
a  boy,  some  verse  or  other  from  your  teacher  ?  " 

"  Yes,  I  recollect  that." 

"  Well,  then,  did  that  verse  transmigrate  from  your  teacher  ?' 

"  Certainly  not." 

"  Just  so,  great  king,  is  rebirth  without  transmigration." 

"  Very  good,  Nagasena  ! " 


74         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

In  the  Jataka  tales  and  other  popular  legends  ex- 
pressions are  frequently  retained  which  suggest  the 
old  Brahmanical  conception  of  a  transmigration  of 
soul,  but  philosophical  expositions  of  the  problem 
leave  no  doubt  about  the  meaning  of  the  Buddhistic 
idea  of  rebirth.  At  any  rate,  here  is  a  plain  state- 
ment in  one  of  the  most  famous  and  authoritative 
Buddhist  scriptures,  which  denies  that  there  is  any 
transmigration  of  a  soul-entity ;  and  thus  Professor 
Oldenberg's  charge  of  inconsistency  falls  to  the 
ground,  as  it  rests  on  a  misstatement  of  the  Buddhist 
faith. 

Here  is  another  example,  adduced  by  Nagasena  in 
the  Milindapanha : 

The  mango  that  is  planted  rots  away  in  the  ground, 
but  it  is  reborn  in  the  mangoes  of  the  tree  that  grows 
from  its  seed.  He  who  steals  the  fruit  steals  the 
property  of  him  who  sowed  the  mango.  There  is 
no  transmigration  of  a  mango-soul  from  the  seed  to 
the  fruit,  but  there  is  a  reconstruction  of  its  form. 
Thus  (as  said  he  who  came  from  Nazareth)  the  body 
of  a  man  can  be  broken  down  like  a  temple  that  is 
destroyed,  but  it  can  and  will  be  built  up  again. 
The  life  of  a  man  does  not  end  with  death,  for  his 
soul  is  reincarnated  again  and  again. 

And  how  does  this  transfer  of  soul  take  place? 
Partly  by  heredity  as  is  explained  by  Nagasena  in 
the  illustration  of  the  mango  seed,  partly  by  com- 
munication. A  particular  man  is  not  a  discrete 
individual,  but  a  trysting-place  of  soul-activities,  of 
sankharas,  which  are  impressed  into  him  by  example 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  75 

and  education.  Thus,  a  boy  in  school  learns  a  verse 
by  heart;  there  is  no  transfer  of  soul-substance 
migrating  from  the  teacher  to  the  pupil,  but  there  is 
a  reincarnation  of  a  certain  soul-form.  The  teacher's 
words  are  impressed  into  the  boy ;  and  this  is  called 
by  Nagasena  "  rebirth  without  transmigration." 

Similar  passages  and  similes  in  explanation  of  the 
same  idea  are  found  in  the  Visudhi-Magga,  where 
the  transfer  of  soul  is  illustrated  by  the  reappearance 
of  the  form  of  a  face  in  the  mirror,  of  a  voice  in  its 
echo,  of  a  seal  in  its  imprint,  etc. 

Professor  Oldenberg  knows  very  well  that  Nirvana 
in  the  Buddhist  texts  is  not  annihilation,  but  deliver- 
ance from  evil ;  and  there  are  innumerable  passages 
which  characterize  it  as  the  state  of  highest  bliss. 
Professor  Oldenberg  quotes  several  passages  from 
various  sources,  which  corroborate  the  positive  con- 
ception of  Nirvana.  He  says  : 

"  Buddhist  proverbs  attribute  in  innumerable  passages  the 
possession  of  Nirvana  to  the  saint,  who  still  treads  the  earth  : 

"'The  disciple  who  has  put  off  lust  and  desire,  rich  in 
wisdom,  has  here  on  earth  attained  the  deliverance  from  death, 
the  rest,  the  Nirvana,  the  eternal  state.'  Suttasangaha,  fol. 
cu. ,  a  Brahmanical  ascetic  addresses  to  Sariputta  this  question  : 
'  Nirvana,  Nirvana,  so  they  say,  friend  Sariputta.  But  what 
is  the  Nirvana,  friend  ? '  '  The  subjugation  of  desire,  the  sub- 
jugation of  hatred,  the  subjugation  of  perplexity  ;  this,  O 
friend,  is  called  Nirvana.'"  (L.  c.,  p.  264.J 

But  Nirvana  may  be  the  summum  bonum,  be- 
cause it  involves  the  cutting  off  of  the  cause  of  ex- 
istence, and  the  state  of  Nirvana  may  become  an 


76        BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CKITICS. 

actual  annihilation  at  the  moment  of  death.  Yet 
even  the  final  goal  of  saintship  is  not  characterized 
as  an  absolute  extinction.  Professor  Oldenberg 
quotes  the  following  passages  from  the  Uddna  (fol. 
ghau) : 

"  '  There  is,  O  disciples,  a  state,  where  there  is  neither  earth 
nor  water,  neither  light  nor  air,  neither  infinity  of  space,  nor 
infinity  of  reason,  nor  absolute  void,  nor  the  co-extinction  of 
perception  and  non-perception,  neither  this  world  nor  that 
world,  both  sun  and  moon.  That,  O  disciples,  I  term  neither 
coming  nor  going  nor  standing,  neither  death  nor  birth.  It  is 
without  basis,  without  procession,  without  cessation  :  that  is 
the  end  of  sorrow. 

"  '  There  is,  O  disciples,  an  unborn,  unoriginated,  uncreated, 
unformed.  Were  there  not,  O  disciples,  this  unborn,  unori- 
ginated, uncreated,  unformed,  there  would  be  no  possible  exit 
from  the  world  of  the  born,  originated,  created,  formed.'" 

Professor  Oldenberg  adds  the  following  com- 
ments : 

"  These  words  seem  to  sound  as  if  we  heard  Brahmanical 
philosophers  talking  of  the  Brahma,  the  unborn,  intransient 
which  is  neither  great  nor  small,  the  name  of  which  is  '  No, 
No,'  for  no  word  can  exhaust  its  being.  Yet  these  expres- 
sions, when  viewed  in  the  connexion  of  Buddhist  thought, 
convey  something  wholly  different.  To  the  Brahman  the 
uncreated  is  so  veritable  a  reality,  that  the  reality  of  the  cre- 
ated pales  before  it ;  the  created  derives  its  being  and  life 
solely  from  the  uncreated.  For  the  Buddhist  the  words  'there 
is  an  uncreated'  merely  signify  that  the  created  can  free  him- 
self from  the  curse  of  being  created  (in  the  '  Dhammapada'  it 
is  said,  v.  383):  '  If  thou  hast  learned  the  destruction  of  the 
sankhara,  thou  knowest  the  uncreated' — there  is  a  path  from 
the  world  of  the  created  out  into  dark  endlessness.  Does  the 
path  lead  into  a  new  existence  ?  Does  it  lead  into  the  Nothing  ? 
The  Buddhist  creed  rests  in  delicate  equipoise  between  the 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  77 

two.  The  longing  of  the  heart  that  craves  the  eternal  has  not 
nothing,  and  yet  the  thought  has  not  a  something,  which  it 
might  firmly  grasp.  Farther  off  the  idea  of  the  endless,  the 
eternal  could  not  withdraw  itself  from  belief  than  it  has  done 
here,  where,  like  a  gentle  flutter  on  the  point  of  merging  in 
the  Nothing,  it  threatens  to  evade  the  gaze."  (Ib.,  p.  283, 
284.) 

Is  there  no  other  interpretation  of  the  quoted  pas- 
sages than  the  one  offered  by  Professor  Oldenberg, 
viz.,  that  the  Buddhist  faith  is  equivocal,  and  that 
it  leaves  the  question  undecided,  either  as  an  "un- 
fathomable mystery,"  or  as  "  resting  in  a  delicate 
equipoise  between  the  idea  of  a  new  existence  and 
nothing  "  ? 

It  would  be  difficult  here  for  any  man  to  speak 
authoritatively,  but  it  appears  to  me  the  solution  is 
not  far  to  seek.  The  attainment  of  Nirvana  consists 
in  enlightenment,  that  is  to  say,  in  a  recognition  of 
the  fundamental  truths  of  religion,  which  in  their 
practical  application  are  expressed  in  the  noble  eight- 
fold path  of  righteousness.  All  individual  craving 
has  disappeared  in  the  saint ;  he  has  become  an 
incarnation  of  truth,  not  of  theoretical  or  purely 
scientific  notions  concerning  the  nature  of  things, 
but  of  practical  truth  which  manifests  itself  in  a 
moral  life.  Thus  Nirvana  is  actually  an  utter  anni- 
hilation of  the  thought  of  self  and  an  embodiment 
of  universal  love  and  righteousness.  Those  eternal 
conditions  which  constitute  righteousness  are  real- 
ized in  a  human  heart. 

If  we  translate  Buddhist  thought  into  Christian 
terms,  we  would  say  that  the  attainment  of  Nir- 


78         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

vana  means  God-incarnation,  and  the  Buddha  is  the 
God-man.  Shall  we  say  that  the  eternal  conditions 
of  righteousness  are  a  mere  nothing,  because  they 
are  unsubstantial?  Are  they  non-existent  because 
they  are  not  concrete  things,  not  material  objects  ? 
That  would  certainly  lead  to  a  serious  misconcep- 
tion of  the  most  important  facts  of  existence ! 

Further,  must  God  be  considered  as  a  nonentity 
when  we  learn  to  understand  that  God  is  not  an 
individual  being?  Dwindles  the  Christian  idea  of 
Heaven  away,  because  astronomy  finds  no  place  for 
it  in  the  stars  ?  There  are  things  spiritual  the  exist- 
ence of  which  does  not  depend  upon  a  definite 
locality.  The  Pythagorean  theorem  is  true,  and 
would  remain  true,  even  if  the  world  existed  no 
longer.  It  is  an  eternal  verity  and  not  a  mere 
nothing.  This  is  illustrated  in  the  "  Questions  of 
King  Milinda,"  as  follows : 

"  The  king  said  :  '  Venerable  Nagasena,  where  does  wisdom 
dwell?' 

"  '  Nowhere,  O  king.' 

"  '  Then,  sir,  there  is  no  such  thing  as  wisdom.' 

"  •  Where  does  the  wind  dwell,  O  king  ? ' 

"  '  Not  anywhere,  sir.' 

"  '  So  there  is  no  such  thing  as  wind.' 

"  '  Well  answered,  Nagasena.'  " 

It  may  be  difficult  to  .  the  untrained  to  under- 
stand the  paramount  importance  of  eternal  verities, 
but  no  one  can  deny  their  actual  presence  in  life. 
What  other  meaning  can  there  be  in  the  words  of 
Christ  when  he  says :  "  Heaven  and  earth  may  pass 


THE   PHILOSOPHY   OF   BUDDHISM.  79 

but  my  words  shall  not  pass  away."     The 
Buddha  utters  the  same  sentiment.     He  says : 

' '  The  Buddhas  are  beings  whose  word  cannot  fail ;  there  is 
no  deviation  from  truth  in  their  speech",  etc.  (Buddhist  Birth 
Stories,  p.  18.) 

The  words  of  Buddha  are  not  merely  the  utter- 
ances of  his  individual  existence,  but  the  eternal 
verities  which  shall  not  pass  away,  and  he  who 
realizes  them  in  his  soul  has  attained  Nirvana, 

Now,  I  can  see  Professor  Oldenberg  smile,  and 
hear  him  say,  "  That  is  what  I  mean ;  Nirvana  is, 
according  to  Buddha,  the  attainment  of  the  eternal 
verities,  and  nothing  else ;  accordingly  it  is  tanta- 
mount to  extinction.  Nirvana  is  not  a  place,  and 
the  Buddha  after  his  death  is  no  longer  a  definite 
individuality  that  can  be  pointed  out  to  be  here  or 
there.  Ergo  he  is  dissolved  into  nothing."  To  be 
identical  with  verities  that  are  eternal  but  have  no 
dwelling-place  in  space  is,  in  the  opinion  of  many, 
an  annihilation ;  for  ubiquity  and  nullibiety  are  to 
their  minds  two  expressions  of  one  and  the  same 
thing.  Kepler's  soul  has  become  the  recognition  of 
the  three  famous  laws  that  bear  his  name ;  Ludolf  is 
identified  with  the  calculation  of  TT  ;  Newton  with 
the  formulation  of  the  law  of  gravitation.  They 
attained,  each  one  in  his  own  way,  some  special 
aspect  of  the  uncreated,  the  eternal,  the  unborn.  In 
the  same  way  the  Buddha  (in  the  Buddhistic  con- 
ception) has  become  the  moral  law  which  is,  ever 
was,  and  shall  remain  forever  the  path  of  delivery 
from  evil.  Immortality  is  claimed  for  the  Keplers, 


80        BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

the  Ludolfs,  and  Newtons,  not  for  their  names  alone, 
because  their  names  might  be  forgotten,  but  for  their 
souls,  for  their  ideas,  for  the  verities  with  which  they 
have  become  identical ;  and  in  the  same  sense,  only 
in  the  broader  field  of  religious  truth,  Buddhists 
believe  in  the  eternal  omnipresence  of  the  Buddha. 
If  that  be  nothing,  then  "  Nothing "  stands  for  the 
highest  and  noblest  that  can  be  thought  of,  and 
Nothing  would  be  the  divinest  thing  in  the  universe. 
Indeed,  those  invisible  realities  which,  wrhen  recog- 
nized, are  called  truths,  are  of  greater  importance 
than  concrete  things  and  individual  beings. 

This  is  plain  to  every  one  who  understands  that 
truths  are  real,  even  though  they  are  not  substances 
or  entities.  And  the  same  is  true  of  the  soul.  To 
deny  that  volition,  cognition  and  other  mental 
activities  are  substances,  or  entities,  or  that  thev 
need  a  substratum  or  metaphysical  subject  in  order 
to  be  real,  is  not  a  denial  of  their  existence — it  is 
simply  the  consistent  consequence  of  the  commonly 
acknowledged  truth  that  they  are  not  material. 

Here  lies  the  main  difficulty  in  understanding 
Buddhism,  which,  whether  we  praise  it  or  condemn 
it,  must  be  recognized  as  the  most  philosophical  of 
all  religions.  There  is  no  use  in  understanding  the 
words  of  the  Buddhist  texts,  if  we  have  no  com- 
prehension of  their  meaning.  And  how  gross  Pro- 
fessor Oldenberg's  conception  is,  appears  from  his 
proposition  that  unless  Buddha  had  been  guilty  of 
the  inconsistency  of  believing  in  soul-transmigration, 
suicide  would  have  been  a  better  remedy  for  the  evils 


THE   PHILOSOPHY    OF   BUDDHISM.  81 

Df  existence  than  the  noble  eightfold  path  of  right- 
eousness. 

Suicide  causes  the  dissolution  of  the  individual ;  it 
sets  an  example  which  in  the  hearts  of  others  will, 
according  to  circumstance,  bear  evil  fruit ;  it  causes 
consternation  and  unrest,  and  can  therefore  not  lead 
to  the  cessation  of  suffering;  under  no  condition 
could  it  conduce  to  the  attainment  of  Nirvana.  He 
who  imagines  that  but  for  the  supposition  of  a  trans- 
migration of  soul,  suicide  would  be  a  more  appro- 
priate and  safer  method  of  reaching  Nirvana  than 
the  eightfold  path  of  righteousness,  has  no  inkling 
of  the  significance  of  Nirvana. 

Whatever  error  I  may  be  guilty  of  in  my  own 
representations  of  Buddhism,  be  it  in  essays  that  I 
have  written  or  in  the  Gospel  of  Buddha,  this  much 
is  sure,  that  Professor  Oldenberg  has  misunderstood 
its  most  salient  doctrines,  those  on  the  nature  of  the 
soul  and  of  Nirvana.  Being  a  professor  who  has 
studied  the  southern  canon  of  Buddhism  in  its  original 
documents,  he  is  by  many  people  looked  upon  as  the 
greatest  living  authority  on  the  subject,  and  he  can 
therefore  not  fail  to  propagate  his  misconceptions. 
Misconceptions  in  all  fields  of  thought  are  unavoid- 
able, but  if  they  originate  in  men  who  are  called  upon 
to  be  the  channels  of  our  information  the  result  will 
be  sad. 

Professor  Oldenberg  is  a  good  scholar,  and,  I  re- 
peat, I  gladly  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  him 
as  a  philologist ;  he  may  also  be  a  good  historian, 
but  he  has  shown  himself  to  be  incompetent  as  an 


82        BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

interpreter  of  Buddhism.  His  expositions  remind 
us  of  the  parable  of  the  hardwood,*  that  is  related 
in  the  Majjkimanikdyo,  where  we  read  : 

"It  is  exactly,  O  monks,  as  if  a  man  who  demands  hard- 
wood, seeks  for  hardwood,  and  looks  out  for  hardwood,  climbs 
over  the  hardwood  of  a  big  hardwood  tree,  over  the  green- 
wood, over  the  bark,  to  the  boughs  and  cuts  off  a  twig,  tak- 
ing it  along  with  the  idea  '  that  is  hardwood.'  Suppose  that 
a  clear-sighted  man  observes  him,  saying  :  '  This  good  man 
really  knows  neither  hardwood,  nor  greenwood,  nor  bark,  nor 
boughs,  nor  foliage,  therefore  this  good  man  who  demands 
hardwood,  seeks  for  hardwood,  looks  out  for  hardwood,  climbs 
straightway  over  the  hardwood  of  a  large  hardwood  tree,  over 
the  greenwood,  over  the  bark,  and  cuts  off  a  twig  in  the  opin- 
ion that  it  is  hardwood.  But  the  hardwood  which  he  will  get 
from  the  hardwood  of  the  twig  will  not  serve  his  purpose." 

Professor  Oldenberg  has  devoted  his  life  to  the 
decipherment  of  Sanskrit  and  Pali,  but  he  has  failed 
to  comprehend  the  significance  of  Buddhism.  He 
has  climbed  over  the  hardwood  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  Buddha  without  comprehending  either  its  im- 
port or  possible  usefulness,  and,  presenting  us  with 
the  foliage  of  externalities,  assures  us  that  this  is 
the  hardwood  of  Buddhism. 


CONCLUSION. 

Buddhism  is  decidedly  not  nihilism,  and  Nirvana 
does  not  mean  annihilation.  Buddhism  in  its  pur- 
est form  is,  more  than  any  other  religion,  stated  in 
philosophical  terms,  which,  the  more  positively  phil- 

*  See  Karl  Eugen  Neumann,  Die  Reden  Qotamo  Buddho's, 
p.  304-325. 


THE  PHILOSOPHY   OP   BUDDHISM.  83 

osophical  they  are,  will  naturally  appear  to  unphilo- 
sophical  minds  as  mere  negations. 

Christians  find  it  difficult  to  comprehend  Bud- 
dhism, but  the  fact  remains  that  what  Christianity 
has  been  to  Western  peoples,  Buddhism  was  to  the 
nations  of  the  East ;  and  all  the  dissimilarities  will 
in  the  end  only  serve  to  render  the  similarities  that 
obtain  between  them  the  more  remarkable. 

While  we  are  not  blind  to  the  great  preferences 
of  Christianity,  we  must  grant  that  Buddhism  is  a 
truly  cosmopolitan  religion.  Buddhism  can  com- 
prehend other  religions  and  interpret  their  mytholo- 
gies, but  no  mythology  is  wide  enough  to  compre- 
hend Buddhism.  Buddhism  is,  as  it  were,  religious 
mythology  explained  in  scientific  terms ;  it  is  the 
esoteric  secret  of  all  exoteric  doctrines.  It  is  the 
skeleton  key  which  in  its  abstract  simplicity  fits 
all  locks. 

This  is  the  reason  why  Buddhism  can  adapt  itself 
to  almost  any  condition  and  can  satisfy  the  spiritual 
needs  of  great  and  small,  high  and  low,  of  the 
learned  as  well  as  the  uncultured.  It  offers  food  for 
thought  to  the  philosopher,  comfort  to  the  afflicted, 
and  affords  a  stay  to  those  that  struggle.  It  is  a 
guide  through  the  temptations  of  life  and  a  lesson 
to  those  in  danger  of  straying  from  the  right  path. 
And  yet  it  demands  no  belief  in  the  impossible ;  it 
dispenses  with  miracles,  it  assumes  no  authority  ex- 
cept the  illumination  of  a  right  comprehension  of 
the  facts  of  existence. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM. 

THE    ATMAN. 

"DRAHMANISM  and  Buddhism  form  a  strong  con- 
•*-*  trast,  which  becomes  most  apparent  in  the  con- 
ception of  the  soul.  Brahmanism  is  a  religion  of 
postulates,  the  basic  doctrine  of  which  must  be  taken 
on  faith,  while  Buddhism  is  a  religion  of  facts,  re- 
jecting altogether  assumptions  of  any  kind.  Brah- 
manism teaches  the  existence  of  an  Atman,  or  a  self- 
soul  ;  Buddhism  rejects  the  theory  of  the  existence 
of  an  Atman. 

What  is  the  Atman  ? 

About  two  thousand  five  hundred  years  ago  the 
Indian  mind  was  engaged  with  the  problem  "  What 
am  I  ?  "  and  the  documents  which  still  reveal  to  us 
the  lines  of  argument  and  the  chief  results  of  these 
investigations  are  called  the  Upanishads.  The 
Brahman  thinker  considering  all  the  various  ingre- 
dients of  his  make-up  comes  to  the  conclusion  that 
none  of  them  constitutes  his  Self,  and  now,  instead 
of  arguing  that  his  Self  is  the  organized  totality  of 
all  his  parts,  he  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  Self  is 
a  separate  being  in  itself. 

The  self  or  Atman  was  regarded  as  that  some- 
thing which  says,  "  I  am,"  and  remains  the  same  in 
84 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM..  85 

all  changes.  It  is  called  the  Unconditioned,  the 
Absolute,  the  Eternal,  the  Immortal. 

What  is  this  Self?  Is  it  our  body?  No!  Our 
body  is  subject  to  change  ;  it  is  born,  grows,  then  it 
decays,  and,  at  last,  it  will  die.  The  body  is  not  the 
Self. 

Is  our  mind  the  Self  ?  The  same  answer.  Our 
mind  is  not  unconditioned  ;  our  mental  activity  is 
subject  to  change.  Therefore,  our  mind  is  not  the 
Self. 

Perhaps  our  emotions  are  the  Self  ?  But  how  can 
they  be  the  Self,  for  they  come  and  go  and  are  as 
variable  as  the  body  and  the  mind. 

Body,  mind,  and  the  emotional  soul  (so  the  Brah- 
mans  say)  are  the  vestures  only  of  the  Self ;  they 
are  the  husks  or  sheaths  which  envelope  and  hide  it. 
The  Self  gives  reality  to,  and  is  in  possession  of, 
body,  mind,  and  soul.  The  self  is  the  mysterious 
"  ukasa,"  or  quintessence  of  being,  without  which 
reality  would  not  exist.  We  read  : 

"  This  immutable  one  is  the  unseen  seer,  the  unheard 
hearer,  the  unthought  thinker,  the  unknown  knower."* 

We  read  in  the  Chandogya  Upanishad  : 

"  The  body  is  mortal  and  always  held  by  death.  It  is  the 
abode  of  that  Self  which  is  immortal  and  without  body." 
(Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  1.,  pp.  140-141.) 

The  Self  is  supposed  to  be  the  "  person  "  (puru- 
sha=person  or  soul)  who  is  the  agent  in  all  the  or- 

*  Dvivedi,  The  Imitation  of  S'ankara,  p.  15. 


86        BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

gans.  The  Self  is  the  seer  in  the  eye,  the  smeller 
in  the  nose,  the  thinker  of  the  thoughts.  Thus 
Prajapati,  the  Lord  of  Creation,  instructs  Indra  on 
the  nature  of  the  self : 

"  Now  where  the  sight  has  entered  into  the  void  (the  pupil 
of  the  eye),  there  is  the  person  of  the  eye,  the  eye  itself  is  the 
instrument  of  seeing.  He  who  knows,  let  me  smell  this,  he 
is  the  Self,  the  nose  is  the  instrument  of  smelling.  He  who 
knows,  let  me  say  this,  he  is  the  Self,  the  tongue  is  the  in- 
strument of  saying.  He  who  knows,  let  me  hear  this,  lie  is 
the  Self,  the  ear  is  the  instrument  of  hearing. 

"  He  who  knows,  let  me  think  this,  he  is  the  self,  the  mind 
is  his  divine  eye.  He,  the  Self,  seeing  these  pleasures  (which 
to  others  are  hidden  like  a  buried  treasure  of  gold)  through 
his  divine  eye,  i.  e.,  the  mind,  rejoices. 

"  The  Devas  who  are  in  the  world  of  Brahman  meditate  on 
that  self  (as  taught  by  Prajapati  to  Indra,  and  by  Indra  to  the 
Devas).  Therefore  all  worlds  belong  to  them,  and  all  desires. 
He  who  knows  that  Self  and  understands  it,  obtains  all  worlds 
and  all  desires.  Thus  said  Prajapati,  yea,  thus  said  Praja- 
pati." (Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  I.,  p.  143.) 

Here  the  Self  is  defined  as  the  consciousness  of 
the  ego-idea.  The  Self  is  said  to  be  "he  who 
knows,  'Let  me  smell,  hear,  think,  or  do  this.'" 
The  notion  of  Self  is  founded  upon  the  fact  that 
there  is  something  in  us  which  says  "  I  am,"  and 
the  question  rises  whether  or  not  we  are  justified  in 
regarding  the  consciousness  as  the  Self,  and  the  Self 
as  an  independent  being. 

What  is  the  reality  that  corresponds  to  the  pro- 
noun <-<  I  ? " 

The  word  "  I "  is  a  central  and  therefore  very  im- 
portant idea  among  many  other  ideas  which  consti- 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM.        87 

tute  man's  soul.  The  brain-structure  in  which  this 
little  word  "  I "  resides  is  situated,  together  with  all 
speech,  in  the  island  of  Rolando,  on  the  left  hemi- 
sphere of  the  brain  ;  and  if  it  is  conscious,  we  speak 
of  this  condition  as  ego-consciousness  or  self-con- 
sciousness. Its  great  prominence  among  other 
ideas  is  due  to  its  significance  which  comprises 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  whole  personality 
of  the  speaker.  It  may  now  mean  the  speaker's 
sentiments,  now  his  body,  now  one  of  his  limbs, 
now  his  thoughts,  now  his  past  history,  now  the 
potentialities  of  his  future. 

Considered  by  itself  without  the  contents  of  its 
meaning,  the  pronoun  "  I "  (frequently  called  the 
"  ego "  by  philosophers)  is  as  empty  as  a  hollow 
water  bubble ;  if  devoid  of  the  realities  which  it 
comprises  in  its  meaning,  it  is  a  mere  abstract ;  it  is 
a  cipher  by  which  the  speaker  denotes  himself.  If 
regarded  as  a  thing  in  itself,  the  word  is  without 
sense ;  it  is  like  a  circle  without  center  and  peri- 
phery ;  like  a  cart  without  wheels,  box,  .and  beam ; 
like  a  tree  without  roots,  stem,  and  branches.  To 
reify  or  hypostatize  it  as  a  being  in  itself  is  a  logi- 
cal fallacy  ;  and  to  build  upon  this  fallacy  a  meta- 
physical system  is  a  grave  error,  which  naturally 
leads  to  the  most  fantastical  illusions.  We  might  as 
well  hypostatize  any  and  all  other  words  or  abstrac- 
tions and  regard  them  as  real  entities  and  things  in 
themselves.  In  this  way  mythology  has  peopled 
our  imagination  with  all  kinds  of .  chimeras,  fairies, 
ogres,  gods,  and  devils. 


88         BUDDHISM   AND    ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

It  is  interesting  to  know  the  arguments  by  which 
the  unity  of  animated  life  which  manifests  itself  in 
consciousness  was  identified  with  prana,  which 
means  breath,  vital  principle  or  the  conscious  ani- 
mation of  the  body.  Prajapati  explains  that  that  is 
the  true  Self  which  when  leaving  the  body  renders 
the  body  most  wretched.  And  this  is  to  be  honored 
like  "  Uktha,"  the  divine  hymn,  the  embodiment  of 
divine  revelation.  Thus  all  the  constituents  of  man, 
conceived  as  Devas,  made  the  experiment.  We  read 
in  the  Aitareya-Aranyaka : 

"  '  Well,'  they  said,  '  let  us  all  go  out  from  this  body  ;  then 
on  whose  departure  this  body  shall  fall,  he  shall  be  the  uktha 
among  us.' 

"  Speech  went  out,  yet  the  body  without  speaking  remained, 
eating  and  drinking. 

"Sight  went  out,  yet  the  body  without  seeing  remained, 
eating  and  drinking. 

"  Hearing  went  out,  yet  the  body  without  hearing  re- 
mained, eating  and  drinking. 

"  Mind  went  out,  yet  the  body,  as  if  blinking,  remained,  eat- 
ing and  drinking. 

"Breath  went  out,  then  when  breath  was  gone  out,  the 
body  fell.  .  .  . 

"They  strove  again,  saying:  '  lam  the  uktha,  I  am  the 
uktha.'  'Well,'  they  said,  'let  us  enter  that  body  again; 
then  on  whose  entrance  this  body  shall  rise  again,  he  shall  be 
the  uktha  among  us.' 

"  Speech  entered,  but  the  body  lay  still.  Sight  entered,  but 
the  body  lay  still.  Hearing  entered,  but  the  body  lay  still. 
Mind  entered,  but  the  body  lay  still.  Breath  entered,  and 
when  breath  had  entered,  the  body  rose,  and  it  became  the 
uktha.  " 

"  Therefore  breath  alone  is  the  uktha. 

"  Let  people  know  that  breath  is  the  uktha  indeed. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM.        89 

"The  Devas  (the  other  senses)  said  to  breath  :  'Thou  art 
the  uktha,  thou  art  all  this,  we  are  thine,  thou  art  ours'." 
(Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  206-207.) 

We  can  trace  in  the  Upanishads  the  logical  argu- 
ments on  which  the  Indian  mind  arrived  at  the  idea 
of  an  independent  Self,  as  the  breath  or  spirit  of 
man  which  at  the  moment  of  death  was  supposed  to 
leave  the  body  and  to  continue  in  an  independent 
existence  as  an  immortal  being.  Breath  became 
identified  with  consciousness  and  was  supposed  to 
be  the  Self  and  is  called  Sattya,  i.  e.,  the  true  (p. 
209).  It  is  the  mover  of  movements  and  the  agent 
of  actions.  It  is  that  by  which  we  obtain  strength, 
and  its  recognition  is  the  object  of  all  knowledge. 
In  Shankara's  philosophy  the  Self  plays  the  part  of 
Kant's  thing  in  itself.  The  Self  is  described  to  us 
in  the  Talavakara-Upanishad  (Sacred  Books  of  the 
East,  I.,  p.  147) : 

"  It  is  the  ear  of  the  ear,'  the  mind  of  the  mind,  the  speech 
of  speech,  the  breath  of  breath,  and  the  eye  of  the  eye.  When 
freed  (from  the  senses)  the  wise,  on  departing  from  this  world, 
become  immortal." 

And  it  is  by  recognizing  the  Self  that  "  the  wise 
become  immortal  when  they  have  departed  from 
this  world  "  ($.,  p.  149). 

The  Self  was  identified  with  God,  the  Creator. 
Brahman  was  said  to  be  the  Self ;  and  "  in  the  be- 
ginning there  was  only  Self.  He  was  alone;  and 
there  was  nothing  else  whatsoever."  (Aitareya- 


90         BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

Aranyaka,  S.  B.  E.,  I.,  p.  237.)  Having  created 
worlds  and  the  various  deities,  Agni  (fire),  Arayu  (air), 
Aditya  (sun),  the  Dis  (regions),  Kandramas  (moon), 
and  the  rest,  the  Self  created  man,  and  all  the  gods 
entered  into  man  to  ensoul  him.  They  endowed 
him  with  breath,  sight,  touch,  speech,  digestion,  and 
other  functions.  At  last  the  Self  entered  through  the 
suture  of  the  cranium.  We  read  in  the  Aitareya 
Aranyaka : * 

"And  then  the  Self  thought :  '  If  speech  names,  if  scent 
smells,  if  the  eye  sees,  if  the  ear  hears,  if  the  skin  feels,  if  tbe 
mind  thinks,  if  the  off-breathing  digests,  if  the  organ  dis- 
charges, then  what  am  I  ? ' 

"  Then  opening  the  suture  of  the  skull,  he  got  in  by  that 
door. 

" That  door  is  called  the  Vidriti  (tearing  asunder),  the  Nan- 
dana  (the  place  of  bliss). 

"  There  are  three  dwelling-places  for  him,  three  dreams ; 
this  dwelling-place  (the  eye),  this  dwelling-place  (the  throat), 
this  dwelling-place  (the  heart). 

"  When  born  (when  the  Highest  Self  had  entered  the  body) 
he  looked  through  all  things,  in  order  to  see  whether  anything 
wished  to  proclaim  here  another  (Self).  He  saw  this  person 
only  (himself)  as  the  widely  spread  Brahman.  '  I  saw  it,'  thus 
he  said  : 

"  Therefore  he  was  (named)  '  Idam-dra  '  (seeing  this). 

"Being  Idamdra  by  name,  they  call  him  Indra  mysteri- 
ously. For  the  Devas  love  mystery,  yea,  they  love  mystery." 

Of  such  importance  did  the  Hindu  thinkers  re- 
gard the  conception  of  Self,  which  as  an  independ- 
ent spiritual  being  was  compared  to  "a  bank  or 
boundary,  so  that  these  worlds  may  not  be  con- 
founded," that  they  made  the  belief  in  its  existence 
*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  241-243. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  91 

an  article  of  faith.  Knowledge  of  the  Self  was  sup- 
posed to  be  a  divine  revelation  which  would  not 
have  obtained  except  by  the  supernatural  existence 
of  the  gods,  of  Prajapati,  of  Brahma,  of  the  Lord. 
The  Self  is  mysterious  in  its  nature.  It  cannot  be 
discovered  either  by  sense-experience  or  by  scientific 
investigation ;  for : 

"  The  eye  has  no  access  there,  nor  has  speech  nor  mind  ;  we 
do  not  know  the  Self,  nor  the  method  whereby  we  can  impart 
It.  It  is  other  than  the  known  as  well  as  the  unknown  ;  so  in- 
deed do  we  hear  from  the  sages  of  old  who  explained  It  thus 
to  us."* 

The  existence  of  Self  must  be  believed.  We  read 
in  the  Cbandogya  Upanishad  (Sacred  Books  of  the 
East,  I.,  page  122) : 

"  When  one  believes,  then  one  perceives.  One  who  does 
not  believe,  does  not  perceive.  Only  he  who  believes,  per- 
ceives." 

On  the  belief  in  the  existence  of  the  Self  man's 
eternal  salvation  was  supposed  to  depend.  We  read 
(Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  I.,  p.  124) : 

"To  him  who  sees,  perceives,  and  understands  this,  the 
spirit  (prana)  springs  from  the  Self,  hope  springs  from  the 
Self,  memory  springs  from  the  Self  ;  so  do  ether,  fire,  water, 
appearance  and  disappearance,  food,  power,  understanding, 
reflexion,  consideration,  will,  mind,  speech,  names,  sacred 
hymns,  and  sacrifices — aye,  all  this  springs  from  the  Self." 

"  There  is  this  verse, '  He  who  sees  this,  does  not  see  death, 
nor  illness,  nor  pain  ;  he  who  sees  this,  sees  everything,  and 
obtains  everything  everywhere.' 

*Dvivedi,  1.  L,  p.  6. 


92         BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

"  He  who  sees,  perceives,  and  understands  this,  loves  the 
Self,  delights  in  the  Self,  revels  in  the  Self,  rejoices  in  the  Self 
—he  becomes  a  Svaraj  (an  autocrat  or  self-ruler) ;  he  is  lord 
and  master  in  all  the  worlds." 

There  are  various  complicated  systems  elaborated 
from  the  metaphysics  of  the  conception  of  the  Self. 
Most  of  the  Indian  philosophers  identify  the  Self 
with  Brahma,  so  that  there  is  really  only  one  Self 
which  manifests  itself  in  many  various  Selves ;  and 
since  the  Self  alone  is  real,  the  material  universe  is 
conceived  as  mere  appearance,  as  sham,  as  an  illu- 
sion of  the  senses.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  Ye- 
danta  School,  the  greatest  representative  of  which 
is  Shankara,  a  thinker  of  unusual  power  and  of 
great  influence. 

The  Vedanta  philosophy  is  called  advaita,  or  the 
non-duality  doctrine,  as  opposed  to  the  dualism  of 
the  Samkhya  School,  whose  founder  taught  that 
there  are  innumerable  Selves  uncreated  and  inde- 
structible, among  whom  many,  by  the  error  of  not 
distinguishing  between  Self  and  Body,  got  entangled 
into  this  material  world  of  suffering,  from  which 
they  can  be  ransomed  only  by  the  recognition  of  the 
true  nature  of  the  Self. 

Whatever  view  we  may  take,  one  thing  is  certain, 
that  the  assumption  of  an  independent  metaphysical 
Self,  involves  us  in  contradictions  and  vagaries 
wherever  we  turn  and  however  wisely  we  may 
attempt  to  avoid  its  consequences. 

***#•* 

In  opposition  to  these  speculations,  Buddha  denied 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  93 

the  existence  of  an  independent  Self  as  the  soul  of 
man.  While  the  Brahmans  spoke  of  the  Self  in  a 
dualistic  sense,  "  as  of  a  razor  that  might  be  fitted  in 
a  razor-case,"  or  "  as  a  fire  that  might  be  lit  in  a  fire- 
place," Buddha  propounded  a  consistent  Monism  in 
which  he  radically  ignored  all  metaphysical  assump- 
tions and  philosophical  postulates,  founding  his  re- 
ligion on  a  consideration  of  the  pure  facts  of  experi- 
ence. While  the  Brahmans  declared  that  the  Self 
is  immortal  and  immutable,  "  that  it  is  not  increased 
by  a  good  action,  or  decreased  by  a  bad  action," 
Buddha  taught  that  there  Avas  no  use  in  trying  to 
improve  the  immutable ;  but  he  found  it  imperative 
to  improve  man;  and  man's  nature,  according  to 
Buddha,  consists  of  karma,  i.  e.,  of  actions,  or  to  use 
a  term  of  natural  science,  of  functions.  Man  is  the 
product  of  the  life  and  thought  functions  of  former 
existences,  and  his  OAvn  karma  continues  as  a  living 
factor  in  the  generations  to  come. 

In  Brahmanism  facts  are  nothing,  and  idea,  that 
is  to  say  theory,  is  everything.  In  Buddhism  theory 
is  nothing,  and  facts  are  everything.  Theory  has 
sense  only  as  a  comprehensive  formulation  of  facts* 

The  Self  of  the  Brahmans  is  Kant's  thing-in-itself 
applied  to  religion.  It  is  the  thing-in-itself  of  man's 
soul.  It  is  the  hypostatization  of  the  abstraction  of 
self-consciousness,  which  is  carried  so  far  as  to  deify 
that  feature  of  existence  which  is  common  to  all  be- 
ings and  to  regard  the  particular  forms  which  they 
assume  as  unessential.  From  this  standpoint  all 
*See  Dvivedi,  I.  L,  Introduction,  p.  xix. 


94        BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

differences  disappear,  and,  as  the  Bhagavadgita  de- 
clares, "a  Brahman  full  of  learning  and  virtue,  a 
cow,  an  elephant,  a  dog,  and  one  of  low  caste,"  all 
are  on  the  same  level.  Shankara,  speaking  of  "  the 
nightmare  of  separateness,"  says : 

"  He  who  has  the  firm  conviction  '  I  am  this  consciousness,' 
not  the  form  it  takes,  let  him  be  a  Brahmana  or  a  Chandala, 
my  mind  points  to  him  as  the  real  Master."* 

Buddha  would  on  the  contrary  insist  that  the  form 
in  which  consciousness  appears  is  the  man  himself ; 
that  that  particular  form  functioning  in  a  particular 
way  is  that  particular  man ;  but  that  consciousness 
in  itself,  a  consciousness  which  has  no  particular 
form  and  is  consciousness  in  general,  is  a  mere  fic- 
tion, an  empty  abstraction,  and  a  thought  as  "  hollow 
as  a  water-bubble,"  and  as  "  hollow  as  a  plantain 
tree." 

Shankara  was  an  adversary  of  Buddhism,  and  the 
report  goes  that  he  had  instigated  the  people  to  mas- 
sacre the  Buddhists  without  mercy.  This  report 
may  have  been  untrue,  but  this  much  is  certain,  that 
Shankara  was  the  most  energetic  reformer  of  Brah- 
manism  at  the  time  when  Buddhism  began  to  lose 
its  hold  on  the  Hindu  mind.  While  Shankara  re- 
jected Buddha's  philosophy,  he  adopted  those  moral 
truths  of  his  doctrines  which  had  most  deeply  im- 
pressed the  people  of  India,  universal  love,  compas- 
sion with  the  suffering,  and  the  solidarity  of  all  life. 
And  here  this  theory  of  the  Self  merges  into  Pan- 

*  The  Imitation  of  S'ankara,  p.  181. 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM.  95 

theism.  He  sees  with  the  poet  of  the  Bhagavadgita 
"  all  beings  in  Self,  and  Self  in  all  beings."  Feeling 
the  thrill  of  omneity  in  his  heart,  Shankara  says : 

"  I  am  all  bliss,  the  bliss  all  eternal  consciousness. 
Death  I  fear  not,  caste  I  respect  not,  father,  mother,  nay  even 
birth,  I  know  not,  relatives,  friends,  I  recognize  not,  teacher 
and  pupil  I  own  not ;  —  I  am  all  bliss,  the  bliss  all  eternal  con- 
sciousness. "  * 

While  Shankara  has  become  the  undisputed  leader 
of  Hindu  thought,  whose  sway  reaches  down  to  the 
present  time,  we  must  not  omit  to  mention  another 
less  prominent  school,  founded  by  Kamanuja,  which 
has  worked  out  the  doctrine  of  the  Self  in  a  form 
that  peculiarly  and  closely  resembles  the  soul-con- 
ception of  modern  Christianity.  Ramanuja  believes 
in  a  triad  of  existences :  (1)  the  Highest  Self,  who  is 
Para-Brahman,  or  Ishvara,  or  Yishnu,  the  Creator 
and  Lord ;  (2)  innumerable  Selves  of  human  beings, 
who  possess  separate  and  distinct  existences;  and 
(3)  the  not-self  of  the  inanimate  world.  Ramanuja's 
moral  ideal  for  human  Selves  consists  in  the  attain- 
ment of  a  union  with  the  Highest  Self,  in  which, 
however,  their  separate  identities  and  their  individual 
consciousnesses  are  not  lost. 

***** 

The  contrast  between  a  religion  based  upon  a  be- 
lief in  postulates  and  a  religion  based  upon  facts  has 
not  as  yet  disappeared.  The  dogmatic  Christianity 
of  the  present  day  is  a  revival  of  the  metaphysics  of 
the  Upanishads,  and  some  representative  Christian 

*The  Imitation  of  S'ankara,  pp.  157-158  and  156. 


96        BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

authors  remind  us  very  much  of  the  logic  and  modes 
of  thought  of  the  old  Brahmans.  Thus  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, in  his  article  on  "  The  Future  Life,"  says  : 

"  The  power  of  death  to  destroy  living  beings  is  conditioned 
by  their  being  compounded.  For  as  consciousness  is  indivisible, 
so  it  should  seem  is  the  conscious  being  in  which  it  resides. 
And,  if  this  be  so,  it  follows  that,  the  body  extraneous  and 
foreign  to  the  true  self,  no  presumption  can  arise  out  of  the 
dissolution  of  the  body  against  the  continued  existence  of  the 
true  self. 

"As  we  lose  limbs,  organs  of  sense,  and  yet  the  true  self 
continues  ;  and  as  animal  bodies  are  always  in  a  state  of  flux, 
with  no  corresponding  loss  or  gain  of  the  true  self,  we  again 
infer  the  distinctness  of  that  true  self  from  the  body,  and  its 
independence  at  the  time  of  death." 

If  this  passage,  which  contains  the  gist  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  argument  in  favor  of  an  immortality  in 
another  world  of  immaterial  existence,  appeared  in 
one  of  the  Upanishads,  it  could  not  be  regarded  as 
out  of  place  there,  so  closely  does  it  resemble  the 
line  of  thought  set  forth  by  Brahman  sages.  But 
the  objection  that  Buddha  made  against  the  assump- 
tion of  an  independent  Self  holds  good  with  the 
same  force  against  Christian  metaphysics  as  against 
Brahmanical  speculations. 

If  modern  psychology  has  accomplished  anything 
beyond  the  shadow  of  doubt,  it  is  this,  that  con- 
sciousness is  not  an  indivisible  unity,  but  a  unification, 
a  systematization  or  a  focussing  of  feelings.  These 
feelings,  when  not  centralized,  as  in  dreams  or 
swoons,  continue  in  a  condition  that  is  commonly 
called  subconscious.  The  province  of  subconscious 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  97 

activity  in  a  man's  soul  is  very  large,  by  far  larger 
than  the  narrow  circle  that  under  the  stress  of  atten- 
tion appears  on  the  surface  of  consciousness. 
•»#•*#* 

But  is  this  not  a  dreary  doctrine  as  it  denies  the 
existence  of  the  Soul  ?  Those  readers  who  have  fol- 
lowed us  in  our  exposition  on  the  nature  of  the  Soul 
know  that  the  Buddhist  doctrine  is  neither  dreary, 
nor  nihilistic,  nor  does  it  deny  the  existence  of  the 
Soul.  It  only  denies  the  assumption  of  the  exist- 
ence of  a  metaphysical  Self,  of  an  Atman,  an  inde- 
pendent ego-being,  and  proves  that  the  Soul  is  larger 
than  the  ego.  The  rescission  of  that  artificial  wall 
raised  up  round  the  conception  of  our  Self  opens  the 
vistas  of  eternity,  both  in  the  past  and  the  future ; 
it  shows  the  connection  in  which  our  Soul  stands 
with  the  whole  evolution  of  life  upon  earth  and  im- 
presses us  with  the  importance  of  our  deeds  which 
will  continue  for  good  or  evil  in  after-life.* 

"  Not  from  the  blank  Inane  emerged  the  soul : 
A  sacred  treasury  it  is  of  dreams 
And  deeds  that  built  the  present  from  the  past, 
Adding  thereto  its  own  experiences. 
Ancestral  lives  are  seeing  in  mine  eyes, 
Their  hearing  listeneth  within  mine  ears, 
And  in  my  hand  their  strength  is  plied  again. 
Speech  came,  a  rich  consignment  from  the  past, 
Each  word  aglow  with  wondrous  spirit  life, 
Thus  building  up  my  soul  of  myriad  souls. 

"  I  call  that  something  '  I '  which  seems  my  soul ; 
Yet  more  the  spirit  is  than  ego  holds. 


*  De  Rerum  Natura,  pp.  7-8. 
7 


BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

For  lo  !  this  ego,  where  shall  it  be  sought  ? 

I'm  wont  to  say  '  I  see  ; '  yet  'tis  the  eye 

That  sees,  and  seeing,  kind'leth  in  the  thought 

The  beaming  images  of  memory. 

4 1  hear '  we  say  :  Hearing  is  of  the  ear  ; 

And  where  the  caught  word  stirs,  there  chords  resound 

Of  slumb'ring  sentiment ;  and  echoes  wake 

Of  sounds  that  long  ago  to  silence  lapsed. 

Not  dead,  perfected  only,  is  the  past ; 

And  ever  from  the  darkness  of  the  grave 

It  rises  to  rejuvenated  life. 

"  The  '  I '  is  but  a  name  to  clothe  withal 
The  clustered  mass  that  now  my  being  forms. 
Take  not  the  symbol  for  reality — 
The  transient  for  th'  eterne.     Mine  ego,  lo ! 
Tis  but  my  spirit's  scintillating  play 
This  fluctuant  moment  of  eternities 
That  now  are  crossing  where  my  heart's  blood  beats. 
I  was  not,  am,  and  soon  will  pass.     But  never 
My  soul  shall  cease  ;  the  breeding  ages  aye 
Shall  know  its  life.    All  that  the  past  bequeathed, 
And  all  that  life  hath  added  unto  me, 
This  shall  endure  in  immortality." 


GOETHE   A   BUDDHIST.* 

BUDDHISM  is  commonly  regarded  as  a  religion, 
which,  though  it  may  be  adapted  to  the  passive 

*  The  greater  number  of  Goethe's  poems  quoted  in  this  arti- 
cle are  not  commonly  known  in  English-speaking  countries, 
or  at  least  have  never  as  yet  been  translated  into  English. 
The  translations  offered  here  (with  the  exception  of  three 
bearing  the  signatures  of  Bayard  Taylor,  J.  S.  Dwight,  and 
Edgar  Alfred  Bowring)  are  by  the  author. 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  99 

nations  of  Asia,could  never  have  exercised  any  lasting 
influence  upon  the  energetic  races  of  the  West.  But 
this  is  true  only  if  Buddhism  is  identified  with  that 
quietism  which  makes  of  indolence  the  cardinal 
virtue  of  life.  Nothing,  however,  is  further  removed 
from  the  Tathagata's  teachings  than  passive  indif- 
ference ;  and  the  truth  is  that  some  of  the  greatest 
geniuses  of  Europe  have  spontaneously  developed 
the  essential  doctrines  of  the  venerable  sage  of  the 
Shakya,  in  whom  Buddhists  take  refuge. 

One  of  the  most  striking  examples  of  Buddhistic 
modes  of  thought  in  a  Western  mind,  incredible 
though  it  may  appear  to  those  who  persistently 
misunderstand  the  spirit  of  Buddhism,  is  the  great 
German  poet  Wolfgang  Goethe,  the  Darwinist  Jbe- 
fore  Darwin,  the  prophet  of  monism  and  positivism, 
the  naturalist  among  bards  and  the  bard  among 
naturalists.  Goethe,  unlike  Auguste  Comte  the 
founder  of  the  French  positivism,  did  not  believe  in 
unknowable  causes  behind  phenomena.  He  pro- 
claimed the  principle  of  genuine  positivism,  saying :  * 

"  The  highest  would  be  to  understand  that  all  facts  are  them- 
selves theory.  The  azure  color  of  the  sky  reveals  to  us  the 
fundamental  law  of  chromatics.  We  must  not  seek  anything 
behind  phenomena  ;  for  they  themselves  are  our  lesson." 

"  Das  Hochste  ware :  zu  begreifen,  dass  alles  Factische 
schon  Theorie  ist.  Die  Blaue  des  Himmels  offenbart  uns  das 
Grundgesetz  der  Chromatik.  Man  suche  nur  nichts  hinter 
den  Phanomenen  :  sie  selbst  sind  die  Lehre." 

This  principle  implies  the  denial  of  all  things  in 
*  Spruche  in  Prosa,  Edition  Cotta,  Vol.  XIII.,  p.  274. 


100      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

themselves  supposed  to  reside  in  man's  soul  as  well 
as  in  the  world  as  a  whole  ;  and  this  truth  is  ex- 
pressed by  Buddha  in  the  sentence :  "  There  is  no 
atman."  We  shall  prove  our  proposition  that,  in 
this  sense,  Goethe  was  a  Buddhist,  by  quoting  sev- 
eral of  his  poems  which  prove  that  he  espoused  the 
doctrine  of  Karma  as  well  as  the  Buddhist  psychol- 
ogy, which  knows  nothing  of  an  atman  or  separate 
ego-self  but  regards  the  soul  of  man  as  a  complex 
product  of  many  ingredients  constituting  our  Karma 
inherited  from  former  existences  and  destined  to 
continue  after  death  according  to  our  deeds  done 
during  life. 

Goethe  analyzes  himself  in  the  following  poem : 

"  From  father  my  inheritance 

Is  stature  and  conduct  steady  ; 
From  mother  my  glee,  that  love  of  romance, 
And  a  tongue  that's  ever  ready. 

My  grandpa  was  fond  of  ladies  fair, 

Which  still  my  soul  is  haunting. 
My  grandma  jewels  loved  to  wear, 

Like  her  I'm  given  to  vaunting. 

Now  since  this  complex  can't  but  be 

The  sum  of  all  these  features, 
What  is  original  in  me 

Or  other  human  creatures  ?  " 

"  Vom  Vater  hab  ich  die  Statur, 
Des  Lebens  ernstes  Fuhren, 
Von  Mutterchen  die  Frohnatur 
Und  Lust  zu  fabuliren. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM.  101 

Urahnherr  war  der  Schonsteri  hold, 
Das  spukt  so  bin  und  wieder  ; 
Urahnfrau  liebte  Schmuck  und  Gold, 
Das  zuckt  wohl  durch  die  Glieder. 

Sind  nun  die  Eleniente  nicht 
Aus  dem  Complex  zu  trennen, 
Was  ist  denn  an  dem  ganzen  Wicht 
Original  zu  nennen  ?  " 

The  question  "  What  am  I  ? "  is  answered  by 
Goethe :  I  am  a  commonwealth  of  inherited  ten- 
dencies and  ideas. 

Man  is  inclined  to  look  upon  his  own  sweet  self  as 
a  distinct  and  separate  being  Avhich  is  something 
quite  original  and  a  thing  in  itself,  analogous  to  the 
metaphysical  things  in  themselves  of  Kantian  phi- 
losophy. But  this  notion  of  oneself  is  an  error ;  it 
is  what  Buddhists  call  "  the  illusion  of  the  thought 
*  I  am.' "  The  central  idea  of  Buddhism  is  the  doc- 
trine that  enlightenment  dispels  the  ego-illusion, 
and  Goethe  says  tersely : 

"  '  Cognize  thyself,'  'tis  said.     How  does  self-knowledge  pay  ? 
When  I  cognize  myself,  /must  at  once  away." 

"  Erkenne  dich  !  —Was  hab  ich  da  fur  Lohn  ? 
Erkenn'  ich  mich,  so  muss  ich  gleich  davon." 

Goethe  was  a  man  of  great  self-assertion  and  it  is 
apparent  that  he  does  not  mean  self-annihilation  or 
resignation.  Goethe  does  not  mean  to  say  that  he 
himself  (Goethe  or  Goethe's  soul)  does  not  exist. 
He  means  that  that  vanity  of  self  which  imagines 


102      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

that  a  man's  self  consists  in  an  independent  and 
quite  original  being  which  is  exclusively  a  thing  of 
its  own  is  an  illusion  that  is  dispelled  by  self-knowl- 
edge. 

"  I "  am  not  a  separate  ego-consciousness  that  is 
in  possession  of  a  soul  with  all  its  impulses,  thoughts, 
and  aspirations.  Rather  the  reverse  is  true.  My 
soul,  consisting  of  definite  soul-structures,  is  in  pos- 
session of  an  ego  consciousness ;  and  my  entire  soul 
is  meant  when  I  say  "  I."  In  this  sense  every  one 
can  say  of  himself,  "  I  existed  long  before  I  was 
born."  To  be  sure  I  did  not  exist  in  this  exact 
combination  of  soul-elements  ;  but  the  soul-elements 
of  my  Karma  existed. 

Such  is  the  Buddhistic  doctrine,  and  such  is  Goe- 
the's view  of  the  soul.  The  words  which  constitute 
our  thought,  the  most  essential  part  of  ourselves, 
were  first  uttered  millenniums  ago,  and  have  been 
handed  down  with  imperceptible  changes  in  pro- 
nunciation, grammar,  and  construction  until  they 
have  become  again  incarnated  in  the  system  of  our 
mind.  But  it  is  not  our  language  alone  that  existed 
before  us,  but  also  our  habits  of  daily  life,  our  modes 
of  living,  our  loves  and  hates,  our  morals,  our  hopes, 
and  our  aspirations.  Goethe  says : 

"  When  eagerly  a  child  looks  round, 
In  his  father's  house  his  shelter  is  found. 
His  ear,  beginning  to  understand, 
Imbibes  the  speech  of  his  native  land. 

Whatever  his  own  experiences  are, 
He  hears  of  other  things  afar. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM.       103 

Example  affects  him  ;  he  grows  strong  and  steady 
Yet  finds  the  world  complete  and  ready. 

This  is  prized,  and  that  praised  with  much  ado ; 
He  wishes  to  be  somebody  too. 
How  can  he  work  and  woo,  how  fight  and  frown? 
For  everything  has  been  written  down. 

Nay,  worse,  it  has  appeared  in  print, 
The  youth  is  baffled  but  takes  the  hint. 
It  dawns  on  him,  now,  more  and  more 
He  is  what  others  have  been  before." 

"  Wenn  Kindesblick  begierig  schaut, 
Er  findet  des  Vaters  Haus  gebaut ; 
Und  wenn  das  Ohr  sich  erst  vertraut, 
Ihin  tont  der  Muttersprache  Laut ; 
Gewahrt  er  diess  und  jenes  nah, 
Man  fabelt  ihm,  was  fern  geschah, 
Umsittigt  ihn,  wachst  er  heran : 
Er  findet  eben  alles  gethan  ; 
Man  ruhmt  ihm  diess,  man  preist  ihm  das : 
Er  ware  gar  gern  auch  etwas. 
"Wie  er  soil  wirken,  schaffen,  lieben, 
Das  steht  ja  alles  schon  geschrieben 
Und,  was  noch  schlimmer  ist,  gedruckt. 
Da  steht  der  junge  Mensch  verduckt 
Und  endlich  wird  ihm  offenbar : 
Er  sei  nur  was  ein  andrer  war.*' 

The  idea  that  we  are  an  individual  in  the  literal 
sense  of  the  word,  i.  e.,  an  indivisible  soul-being ;  a 
genuine  unity  but  not  a  unification ;  a  kind  of  spirit- 
monad,  seems  at  first  sight  to  flatter  our  vanity,  be- 
cause it  renders  us  independent  of  our  own  past  that 
produced  us,  and  ignores  the  debt  we  owe  to  our 
spiritual  and  physical  ancestry,  giving  us  the  appear- 


104      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

ance  of  originality.  With  a  good  deal  of  humor 
Goethe  describes  this  craving  of  our  natural  vanity 
in  these  lines : 

"  Would  from  tradition  break  away, 

Original  I'd  be ! 
Yet  the  feat  so  grand,  to  my  dismay, 

Greatly  discomfits  me. 
The  honor  of  being  an  autochthon  * 

Would  be  a  great  ambition, 
But  strange  enough,  I  have  to  own, 

I  am  myself  tradition." 

"  Gern  war  ich  Ueberliefrung  los 
Und  ganz  original ; 
Doch  ist  das  Unternehmen  gross 
Und  fiihrt  in  manche  Qual. 
Als  Autochthone  rechnet'  ich 
Es  mir  zur  hochsten  Ehre, 
Wenn  ich  nicht  gar  zu  wunderlich 
Selbst  Ueberliefrung  ware." 

The  two  last  lines  express  in  simple  terms  the 
substance  of  both  the  ancient  Buddhist  doctrine  of 
Karma  and  modern  psychology.  We  do  not  have 
our  thoughts,  habits,  and  aspirations,  but  we  are 
they.  That  which  existed  before  us  and  is  being 
handed  down  from  generation  to  generation,  is  our 
own  pre-existence.  We  do  not  receive  the  tradition 
of  the  past,  but  we  ourselves  are  this  tradition  as  it 
has  been  shaped  by  the  Karma  of  the  past. 

This  conception  of  the  soul  seems  to  lead  to  a 

*  Frorii  avr6g,  self,  and  ;t#«v,  earth,  meaning  "  sprung  from 
the  earth,  an  aboriginal  inhabitant"  ;  here,  "unconditioned 
by  history,"  or  "  absolutely  original." 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  105 

splitting  up  of  our  existence  into  as  many  personali- 
ties as  receive  the  soul-seeds  of  our  Karma.  But  the 
splitting  up  is  not  an  absorption  into  a  vague  and  in- 
definite half-existence,  but  rather  a  duplication  and 
multiplication  of  our  soul  in  the  way  a  pattern  is  re- 
produced, or  as  a  book  that  is  printed  in  many 
copies  may  sow  the  seed  of  the  author's  thought  in 
its  entirety  in  the  hearts  of  innumerable  readers. 
There  is  a  splitting  up,  but  no  division ;  there  is  a 
scattering  of  our  spiritual  treasures,  but  everywhere 
the  soul  remains  entire,  both  in  its  inner  sentiments 
and  outer  forms.  Says  Goethe  : 

"  Life  I  never  can  divide, 

Inner  and  outer  together  you  see. 
Whole  to  all  I  must  abide, 

Otherwise  I  cannot  be. 
Always  I  have  only  writ 

What  I  feel  and  mean  to  say.  , 

Thus,  my  friends,  although  I  split, 

Yet  remain  I  one  alway." 

"  Theilen  kann  ich  nicht  das  Leben, 

Nicht  das  Innen  noch  das  Aussen, 
Allen  muss  das  Ganze  geben, 

Um  mit  euch  und  mir  zu  hausen, 
Immer  hab  ich  nur  geschrieben 

Wie  ich  fiihle,  wie  ich's  meine, 
Und  so  spalt  ich  mich,  ihr  Lieben, 

Und  bin  immerfort  der  Eine." 

This  conception  of  our  own  being  is  of  practical 
importance,  for  it  teaches  us  to  think  with  reverence 
of  the  past,  and  to  contemplate  Avith  earnestness  the 


106      BUDDHISM    AND    ITS    CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

future.  Our  existence  is  not  limited  to  the  span  of 
the  present  life  ;  it  is  not  limited  by  birth  and  death ; 
it  began  with  the  appearance  of  life  upon  earth ; 
nay,  it  is  older  than  that  even ;  for  it  lay  hidden  in 
the  conditions  of  organized  life,  whatever  they  may 
have  been ;  and  we  shall  continue  to  live  so  long  as 
mankind  will  flourish  on  earth,  nay,  even  longer ; 
for  wherever  the  same  soul-structures  rise,  there  our 
soul  will  be  formed  again  and  rise  anew  into  being. 
In  a  word,  our  soul  is  illimited,  in  the  past  as  well 
as  in  the  future.  Eternity  lies  behind  us  and  also 
before  us. 

Goethe  believes  in  immortality.     He  says : 

"  '  Hast  immortality  in  mind 

Wilt  thou  the  reasons  give  ? ' 
— The  most  important  reason  is, 
We  can't  without  it  live." 

"  '  Du  hast  Unsterblichkeit  im  Sinn ; 

Kannst  du  uns  deine  Grunde  nennen?' 

Gar  wohl !  Der  Hauptgrund  liegt  darin, 

Dass  wir  sie  nicht  entbehren  konnen." 

Goethe  does  not  believe  that  immortality  involves 
the  belief  in  a  Utopian  heaven,  and,  like  Buddha,  he 
urges  that  if  such  a  heaven  existed,  as  many  Chris- 
tians imagine  it  to  be,  it  would  not  be  a  place  of  sal- 
vation, but  a  mere  transfiguration  of  the  trivialities 
of  this  world.  Thus  Goethe  prefers  to  be  counted 
among  the  Sadducees,  of  whom  the  Scriptures  say, 
they  hold  that  there  is  no  resurrection  from  the 
dead.  Goethe  says : 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM.  107 

"  A  Sadducee  I'll  be  fore'er, 
For  it  would  drive  me  to  despair, 
If  the  Philistines  who  now  cramp  me 
Would  cripple  my  eternity. 
Twould  be  the  same  old  fiddle-faddle, 
In  heaven  we'd  have  celestial  twaddle." 

"  Ein  Sadducaer  will  ich  bleiben  !— 
Das  konnte  mich  zur  Verzweiflung  treiben, 
Dass  von  dem  Volk,  das  hier  mich  bedrangt, 
Auch  wiirde  die  Ewigkeit  eingeengt : 
Das  war  doch  nur  der  alte  Patsch, 
Droben  gab's  nur  verklarten  Klatsch." 

Immortality  is  not  an  intrinsic  condition  of  our 
soul,  but  can  only  be  the  result  of  our  exertions. 
We  do  not  possess  immortality,  but  we  must  earn 
it.  As  Christ  expresses  it,  we  must  lay  up  treasures 
which  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt  and 
where  the  thieves  do  not  break  through  or  steal. 
We  are  tradition  and  we  live  on  as  tradition.  Our 
own  immortalization  is  the  purpose  of  our  life. 
Goethe  says : 

"  Drop  all  of  transiency 

Whate'er  be  its  claim, 
Ourselves  to  immortalize, 
That  is  our  aim." 

"  Nichts  vom  Verganglichen, 

Wie's  auch  geschah  I 
Uns  zu  verewigen 
Sind  wir  ja  da." 

The  Egyptian  method  of  immortalizing  the  bodies 
of  the  dead  by  embalming  and  mummifying,  and  of 


108      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

building  pyramids  is  erroneous ;  rather  let  the  tradi- 
tion of  which  we  consist  and  which  we  impart  to 
others  be  of  the  right  kind.  The  greatest  treasures 
we  can  give  to  others  are  we  ourselves,  our  souls, 
the  truths  which  we  have  discovered,  our  hopes,  our 
loves,  our  ideals.  Goethe  says  : 

"  It  matters  not,  I  ween, 

Where  worms  our  friends  consume, 
Beneath  the  turf  so  green, 

Or  'neath  the  marble  tomb. 
Remember  ye  who  live, 

Though  frowns  the  fleeting  day, 
That  to  your  friends  you  give 
What  never  will  decay." 

—Translated  by  Edgar  Alfred  Bowring. 

"  Und  wo  die  Freunde  faulen, 

Das  ist  ganz  einerlei, 
Ob  unter  Marmor-Saulen 

Oder  im  Rasen  frei. 
Der  Lebende  bedenke, 

Wenn  auch  der  Tag  ihm  mault, 
Dass  er  den  Freunden  schenke 

Was  nie  und  nimmer  fault." 

Goethe's  idea  of  salvation,  as  exemplified  in 
Faust,  is  self-salvation  through  our  own  deeds.  He 
says: 

"  Yes  !  to  this  thought  I  hold  with  firm  persistence  ; 

The  last  result  of  wisdom  stamps  it  true : 
He  only  earns  his  freedom  and  existence, 
•  Who  daily  conquers  them  anew. 
Then  dared  I  hail  the  Moment  fleeing : 
*  Ah,  still  delay— thou  art  so  fair ! ' 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  109 

The  traces  cannot,  of  mine  earthly  being, 
In  aeons  perish, — they  are  there  !  " 

— Translated  by  Bayard  Taylor. 

"  Ja !  dieseni  Sinne  bin  ich  ganz  ergeben, 

Das  ist  der  Weisheit  letzter  Schluss  : 
Nur  der  verdient  sich  Freiheit  wie  das  Leben, 

Der  taglich  sie  erobern  muss. 
Zum  Augenblicke  diirft  ich  sageu  : 

Verweile  doch,  du  bist  so  schon  ! 
Es  kann  die  Spur  von  meinen  Erdentagen 

Nicht  in  Aeonen  untergehn. — " 

Life  possesses  no  intrinsic  value :  the  worth  of  a 
man  depends  entirely  upon  himself.  Says  Goethe : 

"  Thy  worth  wouldst  thou  have  recognized  ? 
Give  to  the  world  a  worth  that's  prized  !  " 

"  Willstdu  dich  deines  Werthes  freuen, 
So  musst  der  Welt  du  Werth  verleihen." 

The  Buddhist's  Nirvana  is  the  obliteration  of  the 
ego-illusion  ;  it  is  the  annihilation  of  the  error  of 
selfhood,  but  not  annihilation  of  man's  soul  or  of 
the  world.  Nirvana  is  not  death,  but  life ;  it  is  the 
right  way  of  living,  to  be  obtained  by  the  conquest 
of  all  the  passions  that  becloud  the  mind.  Nirvana 
is  the  rest  in  activity,  the  tranquillity  of  a  man  who 
has  risen  above  himself  and  has  learned  to  view  life 
in  its  eternal  aspects.  True  rest  is  not  quietism,  but 
a  well-balanced  activity.  It  is  a  surrender  of  self  in 
exchange  for  the  illimitable  life  of  the  evolution  of 
truth.  It  is  in  our  life  and  life  aspirations  the  en- 
tire omission  of  the  thought  of  self,  of  the  conceit 


110      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

"  Mark  all  the  world,  'tis  I  who  do  this  "  ;  and  the 
surrender  of  all  egotistic  petulancy  is  not  (as  the 
egotistic  imagine)  a  resignation,  but  it  is  bliss.  Says 
Goethe,  in  his  poem  "  Eins  und  Alles  "  : 

"  Into  the  limitless  to  sink, 
No  one,  I  trow,  will  ever  blink, 

For  there  all  sorrow  we  dismiss. 
Instead  of  cravings  and  wants  untold, 
Fatiguing  demands  and  duties  cold, 
Surrender  of  one's  self  is  bliss." 

"  Im  Grenzenlosen  sich  zu  finden, 
Wird  gern  der  Einzelne  verschwinden, 

Da  lost  sich  aller  Ueberdruss  : 
Statt  heissem  Wunschen,  wildem  Wollen, 
Statt  last'gem   Fordern,  strengem  Sollen, 
Sich  aufzugeben  ist  Genuss." 


Contemplation  and  retirement  have  their  charms 
and  are  preferable  to  the  turmoil  of  a  worldly  life, 
and  Goethe  appreciated  the  sweetness  of  seclusion. 
He  said  in  his  "  Song  to  the  Moon  "  : 


1  Happy  he  who,  hating  none, 

Leaves  the  world's  dull  noise, 
And,  with  trusty  friends  alone, 
Quietly  enjoys 

1  What,  forever  unexpressed, 
Hid  from  common  sight, 
Through  the  mazes  of  the  breast 
Softly  steals  by  night !  " 

—Translated  by  J.  S.  Dwight. 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  Ill 

"  Selig,  wer  sich  vor  der  Welt 

Ohne  Hass  verschliesst, 
Einen  Freund  am  Busen  halt 
Und  mit  dem  geniesst, 

"  Was,  von  Menschen  nicht  gewusst, 

Oder  nicht  gedacht, 
Durch  das  Labyrinth  der  Brust 
Wandelt  in  der  Nacht." 

Such  being  Goethe's  view  of  the  soul  and  the  as- 
pirations of  man,  as  expressed  in  his  own  verses,  we 
shall  find  it  natural  that  his  God-conception  is  more 
like  Amitabha  than  like  Zeus  or  Yahveh.  Goethe's 
God  is  not  an  individual  being ;  not  a  person.  He 
says: 

"  Why  do  you  scoff  and  scout 

About  the  All  and  One  ? 
The  professor's  a  person,  no  doubt, 
God  is  none." 

"  Was  soil  mir  euer  Hohn 

Ueber  das  All  und  Eine  ? 
Der  Professor  ist  eine  Person, 
Gott  ist  keine." 

Nor  does  Goethe  expect  help  from  heaven;  he 
has  learned  to  rely  on  himself.  He  makes  Prome- 
theus say : 

"  When  in  my  childhood 
I  knew  not  where  to  turn, 
My  seeking  eyes  strayed  sunward, 
As  though  there  were  in  heaven 
An  ear  to  listen  to  my  prayer, 
A  heart  like  mine, 
To  feel  for  my  distress  compassion. 


112       BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

"  Who  helped  me 
Against  the  Titan's  insolence? 
And  who  delivered  me  from  death, 
From  slavery  ? 
My  holy,  glowing  heart, 
In  goodness  and  in  youth 
Aglow  with  gratitude,  deceived, 
For  the  slumb'ring  God  above  !  " 

|;Da  ich  ein  Kind  war, 
Nicht  wusste,  wo  aus  noch  ein, 
Kehrt'  ich  mein  verirrtes  Auge 
Zur  Sonne,  als  wenn  driiber  war' 
Ein  Ohr,  zu  horen  meine  Klage, 
Ein  Herz,  wie  meins, 
Sich  des  Bedrangten  zu  erbarmen. 

"  Wer  half  mir 

Wider  der  Titanen  Uebermut  ? 
Wer  rettete  vom  Tode  mich, 
VonSklaverei? 

Hast  du  nicht  alles  selbst  vollendet, 
Heilig  gluhend  Herz  ? 
Und  gluhtest  Jung  und  gut, 
Betrogen,  Rettungsdank 
Dem  Schlafenden  da  droben  !  " 

Goethe's  God  is  the  eternal  in  the  transient,  the 
immutable  in  the  change  and  the  rest  that  the 
thoughtful  will  discover  in  the  ever  agitated  evolu- 
tion of  circling  worlds :  God,  in  a  word,  is  the  cos- 
mic Nirvana,  the  rest  in  unrest,  the  peace  in  strife, 
and  the  bliss  that  is  attained  in  the  tribulations  of 
noble  aspirations.  Goethe  says : 

"  When  in  the  infinite  appeareth 
The  same  eternal  repetition, 
When  in  harmonious  coalition 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL    PROBLEM.  113 

A  mighty  dome  its  structure  reareth  ; 

A  rapture  thrills  through  all  existence 
All  stars,  or  great  or  small  are  blessed, 

Yet  all  the  strife  and  all  resistance 
In  God  the  Lord,  's  eternal  rest." 


"  Wenn  im  Unendlichen  dasselbe 

Sich  wiederholend  ewig  fliesst, 
Das  tausendfaltige  Gewolbe 

Sich  kraftig  in  einander  schliesst, 
Stromt  Lebenslust  aus  alien  Dingen, 

Dem  kleinsten  wie  dem  grossten  Stern, 
Und  alles  Drangen,  alles  Ringen 

1st  ewige  Ruh  in  Gott  dem  Herrn." 

Whatever  Buddha's  doctrines  may  have  been, 
this  much  is  sure,  that  the  principle  of  Buddhism  is 
the  same  as  the  principle  of  the  Keligion  of  Science ; 
for  Buddhism  is  the  religion  of  enlightenment,  and 
enlightenment  means  a  perfect  comprehension  of 
the  significance  of  life  in  matters  of  religion.  On 
this  point,  too,  Goethe  expressed  himself  in  unequiv- 
ocal terms.  He  equals  in  breadth  Buddhism,  and 
thus  did  not  reject  the  Christian  religion,  but  only 
refused  to  be  limited  by  the  narrowness  of  its  dog- 
matism. Goethe  accepted  the  truths  which  Chris- 
tianity had  given  to  the  world;  and  mark  the 
reason  why  he  accepts  them :  Because  they  cannot 
be  claimed  as  the  exclusive  possession  of  a  sect,  but 
are  the  heirloom  of  all  mankind,  therefore,  he  con- 
tends, the  "  scientist "  has  a  right  to  them ;  and 
identifying  his  right  with  that  of  the  scientist, 
Goethe  claims  them  for  himself. 


114      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

Addressing  the  Christian  believers,  Goethe  says  : 

"  Ye  faithful,  do  not  claim  that  your  confession 
Be  truth  alone  ;  for  we  have  faith  like  you. 
Science  can't  be  deprived  of  the  possession 
Belonging  to  the  world,  and  to  me  too." 

"  Ihr  Glaubigen  !  ruhmt  nur  nicht  euern  Glauben 

Als  einzigen  :  wir  glauben  auch  wie  ihr  ; 
Der  Forscher  lasst  sich  keineswegs  berauben 
Des  Erbtheils,  aller  Welt  gegonnt— und  mir." 

How  near  Goethe,  the  scientist  (Forscher),  comes 
in  these  lines  to  calling  his  faith  "  the  religion  of 
science  " ! 

The  fact  that  Goethe's  conception  of  the  soul  is 
in  perfect  agreement  with  Buddha's  teachings,  is  the 
more  remarkable  as  Goethe  was  not  familiar  even 
with  the  mere  outlines  of  the  Buddhistic  Abhidharma. 

There  are  many  similar  agreements  that  can  be 
traced  between  Buddhism  and  the  tenets  of  modern 
science,  especially  psychology  ;  and  this  is  not  at  all 
surprising,  for  Buddhism  is  a  religion  which  recog- 
nizes no  other  revelation  except  the  truth  that  can 
be  proved  by  science.  Buddha  teaches  his  disciples 
to  contemplate  the  facts  of  life  without  distorting 
them  by  postulates  or  metaphysical  assumptions. 
His  religion  is  the  most  radical  freethought,  that 
blinks  no  consequences  nor  allows  any  one  to  be  mis- 
guided by  phantasms  of  the  heart ;  yet  at  the  same 
time,  it  is  the  most  earnest  devotion  to  truth,  for  the 
salient  feature  of  Buddhism  has  always  been  that 
the  surrender  of  the  ego-illusion  does  not  remain  a 
mere  theory  but  becomes  a  maxim  of  conduct,  which 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  115 

induces  Buddha's  followers  to  renounce  all  egotism, 
to  exert  themselves  in  brotherly  love  and  purity  of 
heart,  to  devote  themselves  to  the  welfare  of  their 
fellow-creatures,  and,  above  all,  to  serve  the  needs  of 
those  who  toil  and  suffer. 

Christ  taught  by  example,  and  in  pithy  aphorisms 
and  parables,  an  ethics  which  closely  agrees  with 
Buddhistic  ethics ;  but  he  taught  no  philosophy  and 
no  systematic  religious  dogma.  Christ's  ethics  exhib- 
its a  broad  humanitarianism,  and  the  figure  of  Christ 
stands  before  us  as  the  ecce  homo — the  Son  of  man, 
the  representative  of  mankind.  The  church  that 
developed  from  the  moral  movement  started  by 
Christ  has  supplemented  the  theoretical  doctrines 
which  Christ  had  neglected  to  teach,  but  unfortu- 
nately the  dogmatists  of  the  church  replaced  the  broad 
ecce  homo  by  a  narrow  ecce  ego  ;  and  thus  the  assump- 
tions of  the  ego-psychology  have  become  officially 
recognized  as  Christian  dogmas.  Yet  I  venture  to 
say  that  those  two  masters  in  the  world  of  thought, 
Buddha  and  Goethe,  are  nearer  to  the  spirit  of  Christ 
than  those  who  bear  his  name  and  call  themselves 
his  disciples.  If  Christian  dogmatists  would  begin 
to  listen  to  the  teachings  of  science,  they  might  at 
last  be  converted  to  the  ethics  of  their  master. 

ADVANTAGES   OF    SELF-RESIGNATION. 

Both  Buddhism  and  Christianity  inculcate  in 
strong  terms  an  ethics  of  self -resignation,  and 
the  Religion  of  Science  joins  them,  if  not  always  in 


116      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

the  letter,  certainly  in  the  spirit  of  their  teachings. 
It  would  not  be  advisable  to  turn  the  right  cheek  to 
him  who  smites  you  on  the  left  cheek,  but  it  is  not 
only  moral  but  also  wise  to  drop  in  all  affairs  of  life 
the  motive  of  selfishness. 

The  surrender  of  the  thought  "  I  am,"  appears  at 
first  sight  very  impracticable,  and  we  hear  much  of 
the  importance  of  personal  ambition  and  even  vanity 
as  a  spring  prompting  people  to  great  achievements. 
But  when  we  inquire  into  the  cause  of  the  success 
of  any  man,  we  find  it — whatever  be  his  ultimate 
motives — invariably  based  upon  direct  application 
to  the  work  to  be  performed,  joined  to  an  utter  neg- 
lect of  all  personal  preferences,  pleasures,  or  consid- 
erations. 

NAPOLEON'S  CAREER. 

Take,  for  instance,  that  greatest  of  all  egotists, 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,  who  would  deserve  the  name 
the  Great  if  his  greatness  were  not  dwarfed  by  the 
puniness  of  his  motives.  Napoleon  pursued  his  am- 
bitious purpose,  which  was  the  acquisition  of  power, 
without  consulting  his  personal  welfare.  He  ex- 
posed his  life  courageously  to  the  bullets  of  the  Aus- 
trians  on  the  bridge  at  Lodi,  and  faced  death  un- 
flinchingly in  many  bloody  battles.  And  in  estab- 
lishing his  power  he  looked  out  for  the  needs  of  the 
people.  Whatever  wrongs  he  may  have  done,  his 
sins  are  by  far  outnumbered  by  the  blessings  which 
for  the  consolidation  of  his  power  he  conferred  upon 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM.  117 

mankind.  The  reformation  alone  of  the  laws,  which 
was  carried  out  in  the  Code  Napoleon,  amply  atoned 
for  the  tyranny  which  he  exercised  for  a  number  of 
years  over  Europe.  He  further  abolished  a  number 
of  mediaeval  institutions  which  the  legitimate  rulers 
would  never  have  dared  to  touch  from  fear  that  the 
principle  of  legitimacy  might  thereby  be  weakened. 
The  biographies  of  Napoleon  are  mostly  narratives  of 
his  life  from  a  partisan  standpoint ;  an  objective  ap- 
preciation of  his  greatness  can  only  be  written  by 
him  who  is  able  to  trace  the  services  which  Napoleon 
rendered  mankind  by  administering  to  the  demands 
of  the  time  and  devoting  his  influence  to  the  practi- 
cal and  correct  solution  of  burning  questions  with- 
out consulting  his  own  self.  Napoleon  was  person- 
ally vain,  but  he  suppressed  his  vanity  ;  he  loved 
women,  but  he  knew  it,  and  watched  himself  in  the 
presence  of  beautiful  women.  He  offended  the 
young  Queen  of  Prussia,  because  he  was  afraid  of 
her  beauty  and  feared  her  influence  over  himself. 
He  grew  careless  only  when  he  imagined  that  he  had 
won  the  world,  and  the  keen-eyed  Czar  of  Russia 
duped  him  in  the  conference  at  Erfurt  by  the  baldest 
flattery.  Pretending  to  admire  him,  the  Czar  said 
about  the  French  Emperor,  "  If  I  were  a  woman,  I 
would  fall  in  love  with  him,"  and  took  care  that  this 
remark  should  be  reported.  The  idea  that  the  Czar 
was  dazzled  with  the  brilliancy  of  his  genius  blinded 
Napoleon  to  the  extent  that  he  thought  the  Czar 
would  never  dare  to  resist  his  armies,  and,  when  the 
war  with  Russia  broke  out,  he  expected  to  overawe 


118      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

him  with  rapid  victories.  The  vanity  in  which 
Napoleon  indulged  proved  fatal  to  his  career.  It 
marks  the  turning  point  in  the  curve  of  his  life  with 
which  its  descent  begins. 

The  partial  success  of  criminals  is  mostly,  if  not 
always,  due  to  self-control  and  to  a  temporary  sup- 
pression of  the  thought  of  self. 

OMAR  KHAYYAM. 

Even  he  who  in  this  world  of  sorrow  would  live 
for  pleasure  can  do  so  only  by  a  resolute  resignation 
of  his  selfhood.  He  must  harden  his  heart,  and  be 
indifferent  about  his  personal  fate  and  the  transiency 
of  the  pleasures  he  loves.  This  is  best  illustrated  in 
the  Rubaiyat  of  Omar  Khayyam,  the  poet  of  wine 
and  love.  He  sings  : 

"  There  was  the  Door  to  which  I  found  no  key  ; 
There  was  the  Veil  through  which  I  could  not  see  : 
Some  little  talk  awhile  of  ME  and  THEE 
There  was, — and  then  no  more  of  THEE  and  ME. 

"  And  if  the  wine  you  drink,  the  lip  you  press, 
End  in  what  All  begins  and  ends  in, — yes ; 
Think  then  you  are  TO-DAY  what  YESTERDAY 
You  were,— TO-MORROW  you  shall  not  be  less. 

"  Waste  not  your  hour,  nor  in  the  vain  pursuit 
Of  this  and  that  endeavor  and  dispute ; 
Better  be  jocund  with  the  fruitful  grape 
Than  sadden  after  none  or  bitter  fruit. 

"  Ah,  make  the  most  of  what  we  yet  may  spend, 
Before  we,  too,  into  the  dust  descend  ; 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  119 

Dust  into  dust,  and  under  dust  to  lie, 

Sans  wine,  sans  song,  sans  singer,  and  sans  end." 

He  who  identifies  himself  with  his  bodily  incarna- 
tion sees  his  future  in  the  dust  of  his  remains  ;  but 
even  then  in  order  to  enjoy  pleasure  he  must  resign 
himself  and  take  the  fleeting  moment,  laughing  to 
scorn  the  fate  that  awaits  him. 

Omar  Khayyam's  verses  are  beautiful  in  them- 
selves as  they  stand  in  Fitzgerald's  translation,  but 
their  philosophical  meaning  is  brought  out  with 
great  force  in  Vedder's  illustrations. 

GOETHE'S  TRUST  IN  NOTHINGNESS. 

A  similar  idea,  only  expressed  with  greater  force 
and  showing  more  manliness,  is  expressed  by  Goethe 
in  his  Vanitas  Vanitatum  Vanitas.  The  hero  of 
the  poem  is  an  old,  one-legged  soldier  who  is  the 
merriest  comrade  in  the  jovial  circle  of  carousers. 
He  says :  * 

"  My  trust  in  nothing  now  is  placed, 

Hurrah  ! 
So  in  the  world  true  joy  I  taste, 

Hurrah  ! 

Then  he  who  would  be  a  comrade  of  mine 
Must  clink  his  glass,  and  in  chorus  combine 
And  drink  his  cup  of  wine. 

"  I  placed  my  trust  in  gold  and  wealth, 

Hurrah  ! 

But  then  I  lost  all  joy  and  health, 
Lack-a-day ! 

*  A  revised  version  of  Edgar  Alfred  Bowring's  translation. 


L20      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

Both  here  and  there  the  money  roll'd. 
And  when  I  had  it  here,  behold, 
There  disappeared  the  gold  ! 

"  I  placed  my  trust  in  women  next, 

Hurrah ! 
But  there  in  truth  was  I  sorely  vex'd, 

Lack-a-day ! 

The  False  another  lover  sought, 
The  True  with  tediousness  was  fraught, 
The  Best  could  not  be  bought. 

"  I  trusted  in  travel  and  started  to  roam, 

Hurrah  ! 
Cast  off  the  habits  of  my  home, 

Lack-a-day ! 

But  not  a  single  thing  seem'd  good, 
The  beds  were  bad,  and  strange  the  food. 
And  I  not  understood. 

"  In  honor  trusted  I  and  fame, 

Hurrah ! 
Another  put  me  straight  to  shame, 

Lack-a-day  ! 

And  when  I  had  achieved  advance 
The  people  looked  at  me  askance, 
With  none  I  had  a  chance. 

"  I  placed  my  trust  in  war  and  fight, 

Hurrah  ! 
We  gain'd  full  many  a  victory  bright, 

Hurrah  ! 

Into  the  foeman's  land  we  cross'd, 
Alas,  though,  at  our  triumph's  cost  i 
For  there  a  leg  I  lost. 

"  In  nothing  now  my  trust  shall  be, 

Hurrah! 

And  all  the  world  belongs  to  me, 
Hurrah  ! 


THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  121 

And  as  we  end  our  feast  and  strain, 
The  cup  we'll  to  the  bottom  drain ; 
Let  nowhere  dregs  remain  ! " 

Goethe- s  poem  appears  at  first  sight  frivolous,  but 
its  apparent  levity  conceals  a  rare  moral  courage, 
which  was  a  trait  of  the  poet's  own  character. 


SELFHOOD    AN   ILLUSION. 

Self-resignation  is  the  indispensable  condition  of 
success,  but  as  soon  as  self-resignation  becomes  com- 
plete, when  it  rests  upon  a  clear  conception  of  the 
non-existence  of  a  separate  self  and  utter  futility,  nay, 
vanity  of  selfhood,  it  therewith  ceases  to  be  a  resigna- 
tion, and  becomes  an  exaltation. 

It  is  no  longer  a  submission  of  one's  own  person- 
ality under  a  higher  authority,  but  it  is  the  rescission 
of  the  limits  of  one's  own  being  and  a  vindication  of 
one's  own  personality  as  limitless  in  both  time  and 
space.  It  becomes,  to  use  the  language  of  Tauler 
and  Jacob  Bohme,  a  perfect  union  with  God  and 
makes  man  feel  the  thrill  of  the  divine  spirit  that  be- 
got his  soul.  This  state  is  no  more  a  surrender,  it  is 
the  acquisition  of  enlightenment  with  all  its  bliss.  It 
is  ecstasy ;  not  a  fitful  rapture  but  a  calm  serenity  of 
imperturbable  peace.  It  is  no  longer  an  abdication 
of  selfhood,  it  has  become  a  conquest  of  death. 

Selfishness  would  be  the  right  policy  in  life  if  we 
were  genuine  and  true  selves,  but  we  are  not. 
.    When  the  awakening  consciousness  begins  to  illu- 


122      BUDDHISM   AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN  CRITICS. 

mine  all  those  functions  of  sense  and  thought  activity 
which  are  the  product  of  an  ancestral  karma,  which 
is  the  pre-natal  history  that  produced  us,  every- 
thing appears  so  new  that  the  illusion  of  an  atman, 
a  self-individuality,  is  quite  natural,  and  the  thought- 
less are  fain  to  join  in  the  declamations  of  Wagner, 
the  overbearing  disciple  of  Faust,  when  he  says  : 

"  This  is  Youth's  noblest  calling  and  most  fit ! 
The  world  was  not,  ere  I  created  it; 
The  sun  I  drew  from  out  the  Orient  sea  ; 
The  moon  began  her  changeful  course  with  me  ; 
The  Day  put  on  his  shining  robes,  to  greet  me  ; 
The  Earth  grew  green,  and  burst  in  flower  to  meet  me  ; 
And  when  I  beckoned,  from  the  primal  night 
The  stars  unveiled  their  splendors  to  my  sight, 
Who,  save  myself,  to  you  deliverance  brought 
From  commonplaces  of  restricted  thought  ? 
I,  proud  and  free,  even  as  dictates  my  mind, 
Follow  with  joy  the  inward  light  I  find, 
And  speed  along  in  mine  own  ecstasy, 
Darkness  behind,  the  Glory  leading  me  ! " 

It  is  not  "the  inward  light  "  that  gives  us  reliable 
information,  but  the  facts  of  experience.  The  reve- 
lation of  truth  comes  in  to  us  from  without,  and  "  the 
light  within  "  is  only  a  reflection  of  the  All,  whose 
image  we  are.  A  man  who,  like  Wagner,  imagines 
in  his  self-conceit  that  he  only  made  the  sun  to  rise 
in  the  world,  is  not  likely  to  perform  useful  work. 
He  clings  to  the  separateness  of  his  present  embodi- 
ment as  his  true  self,  and  loses  sight  of  the  actual 
constituents  of  his  being.  He  will  try  to  acquire 
fame,  but  will  not  perform  the  work  that  would 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL  PROBLEM.  123 

entitle  him  to  it.  He  identifies  himself  with  the 
abstract  and  empty  idea  of  his  being,  of  himself, 
and  forgets  over  it  the  realities  of  which  it  consists. 
He  may  accomplish  his  ends,  and  what  would  in  that 
case  be  the  result?  His  name,  not  his  real  soul, 
would  continue  to  live  and  be  linked  with  the 
achievements  of  others.  His  name !  And  what  is 
his  name  ?  A  mere  word ! 

The  instance  of  the  preservation  of  the  thought 
of  one  man  under  the  name  of  another  is  sufficiently 
instructive  to  deserve  discussion  of  one  flagrant 
instance,  as  which  we  select  the  case  of  Hooke 
against  Newton. 

HOOKE   OR   NEWTON. 

We  do  not  intend  to  decide  the  priority  claims  of 
Hooke  versus  Newton  in  the  formulation  of  the  law 
of  gravitation  as  expressed  by  the  inverse  square  of 
the  distance,  because  an  exhaustive  presentation  of 
the  case  is  no  easy  matter  and  would  take  more  space 
than  we  can  spare. 

Hooke's  claim  may  be  considered  as  well  estab- 
lished, but  he  must  probably  blame  mainly  himself 
for  the  ill-treatment  he  met  at  the  hands  of  his  con- 
temporaries. He  was  a  man  who  "  originated  much 
but  perfected  little,"  he  was  at  the  same  time  "irri- 
table in  his  temper,"  which  rendered  him  among  his 
acquaintances  unpopular.  Add  to  this  his  penurious 
appearance,  his  crooked  figure,  shrunken  limbs,  dis- 
hevelled hair,  his  solitary  life,  and  miserly  habits ! 


124      BUDDHISM   AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

Yet,  this  unattractive  abode  harbored  the  inventive- 
ness of  a  genius  and  the  keenness  of  a  great  discov- 
erer. He  was  instrumental  in  inventing  the  air-pump ; 
it  was  he  who  proposed  to  regulate  watch  movements 
by  balance  springs  ;  he  urged  the  advantage  of  tele- 
scopic sight  over  plain  sight  in  surveying ;  he  pro- 
pounded valuable  theories  about  the  composition  of 
the  air,  which  "foreshadowed  the  discoveries  of 
Priestley."  Next  to  Tycho  Brahe  he  has  the  best 
claim  to  being  regarded  as  the  inventor  of  the  sex- 
tant. He  stated  the  law  of  tension  and  force  in  the 
terse  formula  ut  tensio  sic  vis,  which  is  still  called 
"  Hooke's  law."  (See  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  III., 
64  ;  Y.,  461 ;  VII.,  803 ;  XXII.,  595  ;  and  XVII., 
442.) 

The  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  contains  a  notice 
of  Hooke's  claims,  from  which  we  extract  the  fol- 
lowing passage  : 


"Hookewas  offended  because  Sir  John  did  not  mention 
what  he  had  told  him  of  his  own  discovery.  Halley  only  com- 
municated to  Newton  the  fact  '  that  Hooke  had  some  preten- 
sions to  the  invention  of  the  rule  for  the  decrease  of  gravity 
being  reciprocally  as  the  squares  of  the  distances  from  the 
centre,'  acknowledging  at  the  same  time  that,  though  Newton 
had  the  notion  from  him,  '  yet  the  demonstration  of  the 
curves  generated  thereby  belonged  wholly  to  Newton.'  '  How 
much  of  this,'  Halley  adds,  '  is  so,  you  know  best,  so  likewise 
what  you  have  to  do  in  this  matter  ;  only  Mr.  Hooke  seems  to 
expect  you  should  make  some  mention  of  him  in  the  preface, 
which  "'tis  possible  you  may  see  reason  to  prefix.  I  must  beg 
your  pardon  that  'tis  I  that  send  you  this  ungrateful  account  ; 
but  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  let  you  know  it,  so  that  you 


THE  PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  125 

might  act  accordingly,  being  in  myself  fully  satisfied  that 
nothing  but  the  greatest  candor  imaginable  is  to  be  expected 
from  a  person  who  has  of  all  men  the  least  need  to  borrow 
reputation.' 

"  In  thus  appealing  to  Newton's  candor,  Halley  obviously 
wished  that  some  acknowledgment  of  Hooke  should  be  made. 
He  knew  indeed  that  before  Newton  had  announced  the  in- 
verse law,  Hooke  and  Wren  and  himself  had  spoken  of  it  and 
discussed  it,  and  therefore  justice  demanded  that,  though 
none  of  them  had  given  demonstration  of  the  law,  Hooke 
especially  should  receive  credit  for  having  maintained  it  as 
a  truth  of  which  he  was  seeking  the  demonstration." 

Newton  at  last  consented  to  insert  this  concession 
as  an  addition  to  his  fourth  proposition : 

"  The  inverse  law  of  gravity  holds  in  all  celestial  motions, 
as  was  discovered  also  independently  by  my  countrymen 
Wren,  Hooke,  and  Halley." 

Newton  claims  that  he  had  thought  of  the  solution 
sixteen  years  before  he  began  to  work  it  out  in  his 
Principia^  but  had  rejected  the  idea  on  account  of  the 
objections  which  were  solved  only  by  the  discovery 
of  the  flattened  condition  of  the  poles.  Schopenhauer 
says :  "  No  man  who  has  found  a  new  theory  will  on 
account  of  some  slight  obstacle  reject  and  forget  it 
for  sixteen  years.  That  is  not  the  treatment  which  we 
give  to  the  children  of  our  own  thought,  but  to  step- 
children or  foundlings.  As  to  our  own  theories,  we  are 
in  the  habit  of  trying  them  over  and  over  again,  until 
we  find  some  ground  on  which  they  can  be  justified. 
Poor  Hooke,"  adds  Schopenhauer,  "  he  had  the  same 
fate  as  Columbus.  America  is  the  name  of  the  con- 


126      BUDDHISM  AND  ITS  CHRISTIAN  CRITICS. 

tinent  which  he  discovered,  and  we  speak  of  New- 
ton's law  of  gravitation." 

How  little  Newton  can  have  been  the  discoverer 
of  the  law  of  gravitation,  appears  from  the  fact  that 
he  always  ridiculed  this  explanation  of  the  mutual 
attraction  of  masses  as  absurd,  because  it  implied 
an  actio  in  distans,  and  even  when  hp  had  become 
convinced  of  the  truth  of  the  formula  he  protested 
against  the  idea  itself,  saying : 

"  That  gravity  should  be  innate,  inherent  and  essential  to 
matter  so  that  one  body  can  act  upon  another  at  a  distance 
through  a  vacuum  without  the  mediation  of  anything  else 
by  and  through  which  their  action  and  force  may  be  conveyed 
from  one  to  another,  is  to  me  so  great  an  absurdity  that  I 
believe  no  man  who  has  in  philosophical  matters  a  competent 
faculty  of  thinking  can  ever  fall  into  it." 

We  need  not  enter  here  into  the  difficulties  of 
the  problem,  we  only  ask  the  question,  Is  it  probable, 
that  the  man  who  wrote  this  passage  is  the  same 
that  discovered  the  law  of  gravitation? 

Now,  suppose  we  accept  the  view  of  Schopen- 
hauer concerning  the  priority  claims  of  Hooke,  does 
not  Hooke's  thought  live  on,  whether  or  not  the 
honor  of  priority  is  attributed  to  Newton?  Is  it 
not  simply  as  though  Hooke  had  written  under 
the  nom  de plume  of  Isaac  Newton?  It  is,  after  all, 
his  actual  soul  that  marches  down  triumphantly  with 
the  mark  of  truth  through  the  ages  and  is  reincar- 
nated, in  many  thousands  of  scientists.  The  actual 
soul  of  a  man,  which  alone  can  properly  be  called 
his  own,  is  not  his  name,  but  consists  in  the  thought- 


THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL   PROBLEM.  127 

forms,  sentiment  forms,  and  deed-forms  which  origi- 
nate in  him.  They  are  characteristic  of  him  as  the 
peculiar  product  of  an  interaction  among  those  other 
soul-forms  of  his  which  constitute  his  inheritance 
from  former  ages. 

He  who  seeks  his  self  and  is  anxious  to  preserve 
it  in  its  separateness,  will  surely  fail,  for  his  present 
individuality  will  at  last  be  dissolved  in  death.  He 
who  attempts  to  immortalize  his  name,  may  or  may 
not  succeed.  A  name,  the  combination  of  letters  in 
the  mouth  of  posterity,  is  in  itself  an  empty  thing, 
and  for  that  reason  it  is  sometimes  more  lasting  than 
our  bodily  organization.  But  he  who  endeavors  to 
be  an  incarnation  of  the  truth,  and  nothing  else  be- 
sides, is  sure  to  succeed ;  he  will  not  be  hampered  by 
other  considerations ;  he  has  attained  immortality, 
and  his  soul  in  its  peculiar  personal  idiosyncrasy  will 
be,  and  will  forever  remain,  a  most  valuable  presence, 
a  never-failing  blessing,  in  the  advancing  and  grow- 
ing spirit  of  the  human  race. 


THE  BASIC  CONCEPTS  OF  BUDDHISM. 

"OUDDHISH  is  generally  characterized  as  a  religion 
•*-*  without  a  belief  in  God  and  the  human  soul, 
without  the  hope  of  a  future  existence,  pessimistic 
and  desolate,  looking  upon  life  as  an  ocean  of  suffer- 
ing, quietistic  in  ethics,  and  finding  comfort  only  in 
the  expectation  of  a  final  extinction  in  nothingness. 
Now,  it  is  true  that  Buddhists,  with  the  exception  of 
some  less  important  heretical  sects,  do  not  believe  in 
a  personal  God  ;  but,  while  on  the  one  hand,  there  are 
many  faithful  Christians  who  look  upon  the  theistic 
dogma  merely  as  the  symbolical  expression  of  a 
deeper  truth,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Buddhists 
believe  not  only  in  the  Sambhoga  Kaya  which  is  an 
equivalent  of  the  Christian  God-idea,  but  even  in  a 
trinity  of  Sambhoga  Kaya,  Nirmana  Kaya,  and 
Dliarma  Kaya,  bearing  a  close  resemblance  to  the 
Christian  conception  of  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 
Further,  it  is  undeniable  that  Buddhists  do  not  be- 
lieve in  the  atman  or  Self  which  is  the  Brahman 
philosophers'  definition  of  soul,  but  they  do  not  deny 
the  existence  of  mind  and  the  continuance  of  man's 
spiritual  existence  after  death.  Men  trained  in  West- 
ern modes  of  thought,  however,  are  so  accustomed 

to  their  own  terminology  that  Eastern  thinkers,  when 
128 


THE   BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.         129 

using  expressions  denying  the  allegoric  terms  of 
Christian  thought,  are  suspected  of  negativism. 
Even  Western  thinkers  who  have  ceased  to  be  be- 
lievers in  Christianity  fail  to  see  the  positive  aspect 
of  the  Buddhist  world-conception,  and  we  are  again 
and  again  confronted  with  the  refrain  :  If  Buddha's 
doctrine  is  not  nihilism,  it  practically  amounts  to 
nihilism. 

Benfey  says  in  the  preface  to  his  translation  of  the 
"  Pantscha  Tantra  "  : 

"  The  very  bloom  of  the  intellectual  life  of  India  (whether  it 
found  expression  in  Brahmanical  or  Buddhist  works)  proceeded 
substantially  from  Buddhism,  and  is  contemporaneous  with  the 
epoch  in  which  Buddhism  flourished  ; — that  is  to  say,  from  the 
third  century  before  Christ  to  the  sixth  century  after  Christ. 
Taking  its  stand  upon  that  principle,  said  to  have  been  pro- 
claimed by  Buddhism  in  its  earliest  years, '  that  only  that  teach- 
ing of  the  Buddha's  is  true  which  contraveneth  not  sound 
reason,'  *  the  autonomy  of  man's  Intellect  was,  we  may  fairly 
say,  effectively  acknowledged  ;  the  whole  relation  between  the 
realms  of  the  knowable  and  of 'the  unknowable  was  subjected 
to  its  control ;  and  notwithstanding  that  the  actual  reason- 
ing powers,  to  which  the  ultimate  appeal  was  thus  given,  were 
in  fact  then  not  altogether  sound,  yet  the  way  was  pointed  out 
by  which  Reason  cculd,  under  more  favorable  circumstances, 
begin  to  liberate  itself  from  its  failings.  We  are  already  learn- 
ing to  value,  in  the  philosophical  endeavors  of  Buddhism,  the 
labors,  sometimes  indeed  quaint,  but  aiming  at  thoroughness 
and  worthy  of  the  highest  respect,  of  its  severe  earnestness  in 
inquiry.  From  the  prevailing  tone  of  our  work,  and  still  more 
so  from  the  probable  Buddhist  origin  of  those  other  Indian 
story-books  which  have  hitherto  become  known  to  us,  it  is. 
clear  that,  side  by  side  with  Buddhistic  earnestness,  the  merry 


*  Wassiliew,  Der  Buddhismus,  etc.,  p.  68. 
9 


130      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

jests  of  light,  and  even   frivolous  poetry  and  conversation, 
preserved  the  cheerfulness  of  life." 

This  description  does  not  show  Buddhism  in  a 
gloomy  light,  and  it  is  different  from  what  people 
usually  imagine  it  to  be. 

In  spite  of  the  innumerable  exuberances  of  modern 
Buddhism,  its  power  and  possibilities  are  still  great, 
mainly  because  it  enjoins  on  its  devotees  the  free 
exercise  of  their  reasoning  powers.  Among  all 
religious  men  Buddhists  more  than  others  appear  to 
be  at  the  same  time  full  of  religious  zeal  and  also 
open  to  conviction. 

We  read  in  M.  Hue's  Travels  in  Tartary,  Thibet 
and  China  (II.,  p.  189)  that  the  Eegent  of  Lhasa 
incessantly  repeated  to  the  French  missionaries  : 

"  '  Your  religion  is  like  our  own,  the  truths  are  the  same  ;  we 
differ  only  in  the  explanation.  Amid  all  that  you  have  seen 
and  heard  in  Tartary  and  Thibet  you  must  have  found  much 
to  condemn  ;  but  you  are  to  remember  that  many  errors  and 
superstitions  that  you  may  have  observed,  have  been  intro- 
duced by  ignorant  Lamas,  but  are  rejected  by  intelligent 
Buddhists.'  He  admitted  between  us  and  himself  only  two 
points  where  there  was  disagreement — the  origin  of  the  world 
and  the  transmigration  of  souls.  '  Let  us  examine  them  botli 
together,'  said  he  to  them  again,  '  with  care  and  sincerity  ;  if 
yours  is  the  best,  we  will  accept  it ;  how  could  we  refuse  you  ? 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  ours  is  best,  I  doubt  not  you  will  be  alike 
reasonable,  and  follow  that.' " 

Now  it  is  strange  that  in  those  two  points  which 
constitute  the  main  differences  between  Buddhism 
and  Christianity,  viz.,  creation  and  the  nature  of  the 


THE  BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          131 

soul,  modern  science,  represented  exclusively  by 
scientists  educated  in  Christian  schools  and  with  a 
Christian  tradition  of  two  millenniums,  will  certainly 
side  with  Buddhism.  There  is  scarcely  any  one 
among  our  scientists  who  would  be  willing  to  en- 
dorse a  creation  out  of  nothing,  and  among  our 
prominent  psychologists  few  only  will  be  found  who 
adhere  to  the  dualistic  soul-conception  which  as- 
sumes the  existence  of  a  psychic  agent  behind  the 
facts  of  soul-life.  Nevertheless  our  popular  concep- 
tion of  a  Creator-God  and  an  ego-soul  are  so  deeply 
rooted  in  the  minds  of  our  people  that,  as  a  rule, 
they  still  consider  these  two  ideas  as  the  indispen- 
sable foundations  of  all  religion. 

We  intend  here  briefly  to  review  the  fundamental 
conceptions  of  Buddhism,  and  hope  to  prove  that 
although  its  doctrines  of  the  soul  and  of  Nirvana 
may  to  Western  minds  appear  to  be  the  equivalent 
of  nihilism,  they  certainly  are  not  nihilism  if  we  take 
the  trouble  to  look  at  them  from  the  Buddhist  stand- 
point. And  far  from  being  pessimistic  in  the 
Western  sense  of  pessimism,  the  Buddhist  possesses 
a  cheerful  disposition  which  in  this  world  of  tribula- 
tion lifts  him  above  pain  and  suffering. 

KAKMA. 

Soul  was  identified  by  Brahmanical  philosophers, 
as  we  have  learned  in  a  previous  article,  with  the  at- 
man,  the  self,  the  ego,  or  the  ego-consciousness,  viz., 
that  something  in  man  which  says  "  I."  This  atman 


132      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

was  conceived  as  a  metaphysical  entity  behind  man's 
sensations,  thoughts,  and  other  activities.  Not  the 
eye  sees,  they  said,  but  the  seer  in  the  eye ;  not  the 
ear  hears,  but  the  hearer  in  the  ear  ;  not  the  tongue 
tastes,  but  the  taster  in  the  tongue ;  not  the  nose 
smells,  but  the  smeller  in  the  nose ;  not  the  mind 
thinks,  but  the  thinker  in  the  mind ;  not  the  feet 
walk  and  the  hands  act,  but  the  actor  in  the  hands 
and  the  feet.  The  mysterious  being  in  man  which 
says  "  I  am  this  person,  I  possess  eyes,  ears,  nose, 
tongue,  hands  and  feet,  I  see,  hear,  smell,  taste,  feel 
the  contact  of  bodies,  walk  and  act,"  is  said  to  be 
the  agent  of  man's  activity.  This  "  I "  or  the  ego  of 
the  soul,  the  agent  of  man's  activity,  is  called  the 
atman  or  self ;  and  in  so  far  as  the  existence  of  the 
atman  is  denied  by  Buddha,  Buddhism  teaches  that 
there  is  no  soul. 

When  Buddhists  speak  of  the  soul,  they  mean  the 
Brahmanical  atman.  When  they  mean  what  we 
would  call  soul,  they  speak  of  mind  ;  and  Buddhism, 
far  from  denying  the  existence  of  mind,  only  replaces 
the  dualistic  conception  of  Brahmanical  philosophy 
by  a  monistic  soul-theory,  which  in  the  course  of 
time  naturally  developed  the  doctrine  that  there  is 
nothing  but  mind. 

The  phrase  "  there  is  nothing  but  mind,"  reminds 
us  of  Clifford's  dictum:  Everything  that  exists  is 
mind-stuff  ;  and  it  may  be  explained  as  follows  :  All 
outside  things  appear  to  us  as  matter  moving  in 
space ;  so  we  appear  to  other  beings  as  matter 
moving  in  space  ;  we  appear  to  be  body  to  our  own 


THE  BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.         133 

and  to  other  people's  senses ;  but  in  ourselves  we 
feel  our  existence  as  that  which  we  call  mind  or  soul. 
Body  is  that  as  which  mind  or  soul  appears.  Our 
body  consisting  of  the  same  material  as  the  things 
of  the  surrounding  world  and  having  originated 
therefrom,  we  conclude  that  all  the  world  consists 
of  the  same  material.  All  that  which  appears  to  us 
as  matter  can,  if  it  but  assume  the  proper  form,  be- 
come such  minds  or  souls  as  we  are  ;  in  a  word  :  all 
existence  is  spiritual,  or  more  exactly  speaking, 
psychical.* 

Buddha  denies  the  existence  of  the  atman,  but 
not  the  doctrine  of  immortality.  He  says  to  Upaka 
(Mahavagga  I,  6,  8.): 

•'  I  desire  to  found  the  Kingdom  of  Righteousness  in  Benares, 
and  will  beat  the  drum  of  immortality  in  this  world  of  dark- 
ness." 

It  is  clear  that  Buddhism  does  not  deny  the  ex- 

*  In  a  partial  accommodation  to  the  translators'  usage  of 
terms,  who,  as  a  rule,  render  Atman  by  "  soul "  and  that 
which  we  would  call  "  soul,"  i.  e.,  the  totality  of  our  thoughts, 
sensations,  and  aspirations  by  "mind,"  we  speak  here  of 
"  soul  or  mind."  Otherwise,  and  according  to  a  stricter  usage 
of  terms,  we  propose  to  make  a  distinction.  When  speaking 
of  "  soul,"  we  mean  mainly  the  feeling  or  sentient  element  of 
man's  existence  ;  when  of  mind,  we  think  mainly  of  the  intel- 
lectual and  rational  features  with  which  the  various  feelings 
are  endowed.  Thus  it  would  have  been  more  proper  for  Clif- 
ford to  say  "soul-stuff"  instead  of  "mind-stuff;"  and  the 
Buddhist  doctrine,  "  everything  is  mind,"  should  be  expressed 
in  the  sentence  :  "  Every  reality  which  appears  to  sentient 
beings  as  objective,  is  in  itself  subjective  :  we  call  it  matter, 
but  it  is  in  itself  potential  feeling  ;  it  can  become  sentient,  it 
is  soul,  or  better,  soul-stuff."  For  details  as  to  definitions  of 
"  soul"  and  "  mind"  see  Primer  of  Philosophy,  p.  193. 


134      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

istence  of  the  soul,  if  by  soul  is  meant  man's  ideas, 
aspirations,  and  mental  activities.  Buddhists  declare 
that  man's  soul  is  not  an  indissoluble  unit,  not  a 
metaphysical  self,  but  a  compound.  Man's  physical 
and  spiritual  being  consists  of  samskaras,*  i.  e.,  of 
certain  forms  and  formative  faculties  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  of  Karma,  are  preserved  and  thus 
condition  the  continuity  of  his  existence  in  the  whirl 
of  constant  changes.  Oldenberg  translates  the  word 
samskara  by  Gestallung,  and  says  in  explanation  of 
the  term  (p.  242,  English  Translation) : 

"  We  might  translate  Samkhara  directly  by  '  actions'  if  we 
understand  this  word  in  the  wide  sense  in  which  it  includes 
also,  at  the  same  time,  the  internal  actions,  the  will  and  the 
wish." 

Samskara  denotes  soul  structure,  manifesting  itself 
in  functions  as  the  formative  element  which  shapes 
our  existence  and  destiny.  Oldenberg  continues : 

"  Buddhism  teaches  : '  My  action  is  my  possession,  my  action 
is  my  inheritance,  my  action  is  the  womb  which  bears  me, 
my  action  is  the  race  to  which  I  am  akin,  my  action  is  my 
refuge.'  (Anguttara  Nikaya,  Pancaka  Nipata.)  What  appears 
to  man  to  be  his  body  is  in  truth  '  the  action  of  his  past  state 
which  then  assuming  a  form,  realised  through  his  endeavor, 
has  become  endowed  with  a  tangible  existence.' " 

The  Jewish-Christian  world-conception  represents 
us  as  the  creatures  of  God.  "We  are  like  vessels  in 
the  potter's  hand ;  some  of  us  are  made  for  noble 

*  "  Samskara"  is  Sanskrit,  "  Sarakhara  "  or  "  Samkhara  "  is 
Pali. 


THE  BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          135 

purposes,  others  as  vessels  of  impurity.  Buddhists 
look  upon  our  character  and  fate  as  the  result  of  our 
own  doings  in  our  present  and  innumerable  past  ex- 
istences. In  this  sense  the  Dhammapada  *  says : 

"  By  oneself  the  evil  is  done ;  by  oneself  one  suffers. 

By  oneself  evil  is  left  undone  ;  by  oneself  one  is  purified. 

Purity  and  impurity  belong  to  oneself,  no  one  can  purify 
another. 

You  yourself  must  make  an  effort.  The  Buddhas  are  only 
preachers. 

The  way  was  preached  by  me  when  I  understood  the  re- 
moval of  the  thorn  in  the  flesh." 

According  to  Buddhist  doctrines,  the  souls  of  men 
continue  to  exist  as  they  are  impressed  upon  other 
generations  by  heredity  and  education.  A  man  re- 
mains the  same  from  yesterday  until  to-day,  and 
from  to-day  until  to-morrow,  in  so  far  as  he  consists 
of  the  same  sawskaras;  his  character  remains  the 
same,  exactly  as  a  light  burning  several  hours  re- 
mains the  same  light,  although  the  flame  is  always 
fed  by  other  particles  of  oil.f  The  man  of  the  same 
character  as  you,  is  the  same  as  you,  in  somewhat 
the  same  sense  as  two  triangles  of  equal  angles  and 
sides  are  congruent.  This  is  tersely  expressed  in  the 
saying  Tat  twain  asi,  "  That  art  thou,"  which  Scho- 
penhauer makes  the  corner-stone  of  ethics,  for  this 
view  of  the  soul,  in  which  one  recognizes  oneself  in 
others,  removes  all  motives  of  selfishness. 

*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  X,  pp.  46  and  67. 
t  This  simile  is  used  in  The  Questions  of  Milinda. 


136      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

There  are  two  isolated  passages  in  the  Dhamma- 
pada  which  apparently  are  a  contradiction  of  Bud- 
dha's doctrine  of  the  illusion  of  self.  We  read  in 
verse  160 :  "  Self  is  the  lord  of  self.  Who  else  could 
be  the  lord  ";  and  in  verse  323 :  "A  man  who  con- 
trols himself  enters  the  untrodden  land  through  his 
own  self -controlled  self."  Prof.  Max  Miiller,  who  is 
himself  a  champion  of  the  atman  doctrine,  makes 
the  most  of  these  passages,  in  proving  that  Buddha 
might  have  taught  the  existence  of  self.  But  his 
proposition  is  improbable  in  the  face  of  so  many 
other  unequivocal  statements.  Moreover,  the  general 
meaning  of  the  quoted  sentences  is  unmistakable. 
There  is  no  reference  to  the  existence  of  a  self  in  the 
sense  of  the  Brahmanical  atman.  The  author  of 
these  passages — whether  Buddha  himself,  or  a  Bud- 
dhist, or,  what  is  not  improbable,  some  thinker  older 
than  Buddha — simply  means  that  "  by  self-control 
alone  man  can  attain  salvation,"  but  we  have  no 
right  to  interpret  the  words  in  a  sense  which  would 
antagonize  one  of  the  cardinal  doctrines  of  Bud- 
dhism. We  must  bear  in  mind  that  Buddha  does 
not  deny  the  existence  of  the  idea  of  self  in  man. 
He  only  denies  the  existence  of  a  soul-substratum 
such  as  was  assumed  under  the  name  of  self  by  the 
most  prominent  philosophers  of  his  time.  Buddha 
does  not  deny  that  there  is  an  ego-consciousness 
in  the  soul.  He  only  rejects  the  assumption  that 
our  ego-consciousness  is  the  doer  of  our  acts  and 
the  thinker  of  our  thoughts,  or  a  kind  of  thing-in- 
itself  behind  our  existence. 


THE   BASIC    CONCEPTS    OF    BUDDHISM.          137 

There  are  many  words  which  are  used  in  various 
applications,  implying  radically  different  or  even 
contradictory  meanings,  and  the  word  "  self "  is  in 
this  respect  no  exception.  Generally  speaking,  self 
is  that  idea  in  a  man's  mind  which  represents  the 
totality  of  his  existence,  his  bodily  form,  his  senses 
and  their  activities,  his  thoughts,  his  emotions,  his 
likes  and  dislikes,  his  aspirations  and  hopes.  Far 
from  proposing  to  exterminate  self  in  this  sense, 
Buddha's  religion  preaches  the  elevation  and  sancti- 
fication  of  every  one's  self,  so  much  so  that  Olden- 
berg  characterizes  the  ethics  of  Buddhism  as  self- 
culture  and  self-discipline  ( "  sittliche  Arbeit  an  sich 
selbst"),  as  expressed  in  verse  239  of  the  Dham- 
mapada : 

"  Let  a  wise  man  blow  off  the  impurities  of  his  self  as  a 
smith  blows  off  the  impurities  of  silver,  one  by  one,  little  by 
little,  and  from  time  to  time." 

When  Buddhists  speak  of  the  illusion  of  self,  de- 
nouncing the  idea  of  self  as  the  main  cause  of  all 
evil,  they  mean  that  erroneous  notion  which  not  only 
hypostatizes  the  idea  of  self  into  an  independent  be- 
ing, but  even  makes  of  it  the  metaphysical  agent  of 
all  our  activities.  The  adoption  of  this  metaphysi- 
cal self -conception  is  said  to  warp  all  our  thoughts 
and  to  dim  our  spiritual  vision ;  it  makes  us  neglect 
the  true  substance  of  our  soul  for  a  mere  shadow. 

Buddha,  while  denying  the  Brahmanjcal  theory 
of  the  atman,  offered  a  new  solution  of  the  problem 
of  the  soul.  Says  Ehys  Davids  in  his  "Hibbert 
Lectures,"  p.  29 : 


138      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

"  The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  Buddhism  was  that  it 
started  a  new  line,  that  it  looked  upon  the  deepest  questions 
men  have  to  solve  from  an  entirely  different  standpoint.  It 
swept  away  from  the  field  of  its  vision  the  whole  of  the  great 
soul-theory  which  had  hitherto  so  completely  filled  and  domi- 
nated the  minds  of  the  superstitious  and  the  thoughtful  alike. 
For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  world,  it  proclaimed  a 
salvation  which  each  man  could  gain  for  himself  and  by  him- 
self, in  this  world,  during  this  life,  without  even  the  least  ref- 
erence to  God,  or  to  gods,  either  great  or  small.  Like  the 
Upanishads,  it  placed  the  first  importance  on  knowledge  ;  but 
it  was  no  longer  a  knowledge  of  God,  it  was  a  clear  perception 
of  the  real  nature,  as  they  supposed  it  to  be,  of  men  and  things. 
And  it  added  to  the  necessity  of  knowledge,  the  necessity  of 
purity,  of  courtesy,  of  uprightness,  of  peace,  and  of  a  uni- 
versal love  far-reaching,  grown  great  and  beyond  measure." 

While  Self,  that  hypothetical  agent  behind  the 
soul,  thus  disappears  in  the  teachings  of  Buddhism, 
the  conception  soul  or  mind  is  not  abolished  and  the 
idea  of  soul-transmigration  gains  a  new  importance. 
The  pre-Buddhistic  notion  of  a  soul  flitting  about 
and  seeking  a  new  abode  in  another  body  was  given 
up  by  Shakyamuni  for  the  more  correct  idea  of  a 
transfer  of  the  Sa7?iskaras  according  to  the  law  of 
Karma.  Buddhism  recognizes  the  law  of  Karma 
as  irrefragable  and  bases  upon  it  the  unfailing  justice 
of  the  moral  law. 

Concerning  the  migration  of  souls  underlying  the 
moral  of  the  Jataka-tales  in  the  "Buddhist  Birth 
Stories,"  Prof.  Rhys  Davids  says  in  the  preface  to 
his  translation,  p.  Ixxv : 

"  The  reader  must  of  course  avoid  the  mistake  of  importing 
Christian  ideas  into  this  Conclusion  by  supposing  that  the 


THE   BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.         139 

identity  of  the  persons  in  the  two  stories  is  owing  to  the  pass- 
age of  a  '  soul '  from  the  one  to  the  other.  Buddhism  does  not 
teach  the  Transmigration  of  Souls.*  Its  doctrine  would  be 
better  summarised  as  the  Transmigration  of  Character  ;  for  it 
is  entirely  independent  of  the  early  and  widely-prevalent  no- 
tion of  the  existence  within  each  human  body  of  a  distinct 
soul,  or  ghost,  or  spirit." 

The  same  author  says  in  his  manual  of  "  Bud- 
dhism." p.  104 : 

"As  one  generation  dies  and  gives  way  to  another —  the  heir 
of  the  consequences  of  all  its  virtues  and  all  its  vices,  the  ex- 
act result  of  pre-existing  causes  ;  so  each  individual  in  the  long 
chain  of  life  inherits  all,  of  good  or  evil,  which  all  its  prede- 
cessors have  done  or  been ;  and  takes  up  the  struggle  towards 
enlightenment  precisely  there,  where  they  have  left  it." 

Speaking  of  Karma,  Professor  Davids  explains 
the  nature  of  Buddhism  as  follows : 

"Most  forms  of  Paganism,  past  and  present,  teach  men  to 
seek  for  some  sort  of  happiness  here.  Most  other  forms  of 
belief  say  that  this  is  folly,  but  the  faithful  and  the  holy  shall 
find  happiness  hereafter,  in  a  better  world  beyond.  Buddhism 
maintains  that  the  one  hope  is  as  hollow  as  the  other ;  that 
the  consciousness  of  self  is  a  delusion  ;  that  the  organized  be- 
ing, sentient  existence,  since  it  is  not  infinite,  is  bound  up 
inextricably  with  ignorance,  and  therefore  with  sin,  and 
therefore  with  sorrow.  '  Drop  then  this  petty  foolish  longing 
for  personal  happiness,'  Buddhism  would  say !  '  Here  it  comes 
of  ignorance,  and  leads  to  sin,  which  leads  to  sorrow,'  and 
there  the  conditions  of  existence  are  the  same,  and  each  new 
birth  will  leave  you  ignorant  and  finite  still.  There  is  nothing 
eternal ;  the  very  cosmos  itself  is  passing  away  ;  nothing  is, 
everything  becomes  ;  and  all  that  you  see  and  feel,  bodily  or 
mentally,  of  yourself  will  pass  away  like  everything  else ; 


*I.  e.,  of  atmans. 


140      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

there  will  only  remain  the  accumulated  result  of  all  your 
actions,  words,  and  thoughts.*  Be  pure  then,  and  kind,  not 
lazy  in  thought.  Be  awake,  shake  off  your  delusions,  and 
enter  resolutely  on  the  "Path"  which  will  lead  you  away 
from  these  restless,  tossing  waves  of  the  ocean  of  life  ;  — the 
Path  to  the  Joy  and  Rest  of  the  Nirvana  of  Wisdom  and 
Goodness  and  Peace ! ' " 

Ehys  Davids  says  :  "  There  will  only  remain  the 
.accumulated  result  of  all  your  actions,  words,  and 
thoughts."  True  ;  but  why  does  he  say  "  only  "  ? 
The  accumulated  result  of  your  actions  (viz.,  your 
saraskaras)  are  your  own  being.  They  constitute 
your  mind  so  long  as  you  live,  and  there  is  no  self 
behind  them,  no  ego,  no  atman,  no  metaphysical 
soul-monad.  Thus  it  appears  that,  according  to 
Buddhist  notions,  we  ourselves  continue  in  the  ac- 
cumulated results  of  our  actions.  Since  Prof.  Ehys 
Davids  fails  to  bear  in  mind  that  our  Saraskaras  are 
we  ourselves,  it  is  perhaps  natural  that  he,  although 
one  of  the  profoundest  of  Buddhist  scholars,  does  not, 
in  spite  of  his  perfect  knowledge  of  facts,  appreciate 
the  importance  of  the  Buddhistic  conception  of 
Karma  and  the  migration  of  soul.  I  do  not  say  that 
he  misunderstands  this  part  of  the  Buddhist  doc- 
trine ;  but  I  say  that  he  does  not  appreciate  it.  He 
continues  the  passage  just  quoted : 

"  Strange  is  it  and  instructive  that  all  this  should  have 
seemed  not  unattractive  these  2,300  years  and  more  to  many 
despairing  and  earnest  hearts — that  they  should  have  trusted 
themselves  to  the  so  seeming  stately  bridge  which  Buddhism 


*  Italics  are  ours. 


THE   BASIC  CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          141 

has  tried  to  build  over  the  river  of  the  mysteries  and  sorrows 
of  life.  They  have  been  charmed  and  awed  perhaps  by  the 
delicate  or  noble  beauty  of  some  of  the  several  stones  of  which 
the  arch  is  built ;  they  have  seen  that  the  whole  rests  on  a 
more  or  less  solid  foundation  of  fact ;  that  on  one  side  of  the 
keystone  is  the  necessity  of  justice,  on  the  other  the  law  of 
causality.'* 

Then,  he  adds : 

"  But  they  have  failed  to  see  that  the  very  keystone  itself, 
the  link  between  one  life  and  another,  is  a  mere  word — this 
wonderful  hypothesis,  this  airy  nothing,  this  imaginary  cause 
beyond  the  reach  of  reason— the  individualized  and  indi- 
vidualizing force  of  Karma. 

Prof.  Rhys  Davids  adds  in  a  foot-note : 

"  Individualized,  in  so  far  as  the  result  of  a  man's  actions  is 
concentrated  in  the  formation  of  a  second  sentient  being  ;  in- 
dividualizing, in  so  far  as  it  is  the  force  by  which  different 
beings  become  one  individual.  In  other  respects  the  force  of 
Karma  is  real  enough." 

Modern  science  teaches  that  it  is  function  which 
creates  the  organ,  and,  vice  versa,  the  organ  is  but 
the  visible  result  of  innumerable  former  functions. 
This  may  be  considered  as  a  modern  restatement  of 
the  Buddhist  doctrine  of  the  Samkharas.  All  the 
seeings  of  ancestral  eyes  continue  to  live  in  our  eyes. 
Our  ancestors  are  not  dead ;  they  are  still  here  in 
us ;  and  by  ancestors  the  Buddhist  understands  not 
only  progenitors,  but  also  those  who  formed  our 
soul.  Shakyamuni  says  to  his  father,  that  not  he  and 
his  fathers,  the  Kings  of  the  Shakya,  but  the  Buddhas 
of  former  ages  were  his  ancestry. 


142      BUDDHISM  AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN  CRITICS. 

In  the  name  of  Buddhism,  I  venture  to  make  a  re- 
ply to  Prof.  Rhys  Davids :  Buddhism  has  torn  down 
the  imaginary  fence  which  separates  man's  self  from 
other  selves.  He  who  fails  to  see  the  link  between 
one  life  and  another,  or  speaks  of  it  as  an  "airy 
nothing,"  still  holds  to  the  illusion  of  self.  He  who 
abandons  the  idea  of  self  must  recognise  the  sameness 
of  two  souls  consisting  of  the  same  Sawskaras. 
Otherwise  we  ought  to  deny  also  the  sameness  of  the 
"  I "  of  to-day  and  of  yesterday.  That  which  con- 
stitutes the  identity  of  person  in  one  and  the  same 
individual  is  only  the  continuity  and  the  sameness 
of  his  character.  The  "  I "  of  to-day  has  to  take  all 
the  consequences  of  the  actions  which  the  "  I "  of 
yesterday  performed.  Thus  the  individualized  Kar- 
ma of  future  times  will  reap  all  that  which  the  in- 
dividualizing Karma  of  the  present  time  sows. 

And,  strange  enough,  this  Buddhistic  conception 
of  the  soul  is  quite  in  harmony  with  the  views  of 
the  most  prominent  psychologists  of  Europe. 

Since  this  remark  on  Prof.  Rhys  Davids  was  writ- 
ten and  published  in  the  April  number  of  The  Monist 
for  1894,  he  has  apparently  changed  his  view  of  the 
subject  and  I  would  have  cancelled  the  whole  pas- 
sage in  which  I  take  exception  to  his  statement,  did 
not  his  former  and  more  popular  book  remain  before 
the  public  and  continue  to  exercise  a  powerful  in- 
fluence ;  for  he  is  (and  justly  so)  deemed  a  great 
authority  on  Buddhism.  In  his  latest  publication 
Prof.  Rhys  Davids,  touching  upon  the  same  problem, 
sums  the  case  up  in  these  words  : 


THE  BASIC  CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          143 

"  A  man  thinks  he  began  to  be  a  few  years— twenty,  forty 
sixty  years — ago.  There  is  some  truth  in  that ;  but  in  a  much 
larger,  deeper,  truer  sense  he  has  been  (in  the  causes  of  which 
he  is  the  result)  for  countless  ages  in  the  past ;  and  those  same 
causes  (of  which  he  is  the  temporary  effect)  will  continue  in 
other  like  temporary  forms  through  countless  ages  yet  to 
come. 

' '  There  is  no  such  thing  as  an  individuality  which  is  per- 
manent ;  even  were  a  permanent  individuality  to  be  possible, 
it  would  not  be  desirable,  for  it  is  not  desirable  to  be  separate. 
The  effort  to  keep  oneself  separate  may  succeed  indeed  for  a 
time  ;  but  so  long  as  it  is  successful  it  involves  limitation,  and 
therefore  ignorance,  and  therefore  pain.  '  No  !  it  is  not  sep- 
arateness  you  should  hope  and  long  for,'  says  the  Buddhist. 
"  it  is  union — the  sense  of  oneness  with  all  that  now  is,  that 
has  ever  been,  that  can  ever  be — the  sense  that  shall  enlarge 
the  horizon  of  your  being  to  the  limits  of  the  universe,  to  the 
boundaries  of  time  and  space,  that  shall  lift  you  up  into  a  new 
plane  far  beyond,  outside  all  mean  and  miserable  care  for  self. 
Why  stand  shrinking  there  ?  Give  up  the  fool's  paradise  of 
"  This  is  I,"  and  "  This  is  mine."  It  is  a  real  fact — the  greatest 
of  realities— that  you  are  asked  to  grasp.  Leap  forward  with- 
out fear !  You  shall  find  yourself  in  the  ambrosial  waters  of 
Nirvana,  and  sport  with  the  Arahats  who  have  conquered 
birth  and  death  ! ' 

"  This  theory  of  Karma  is  the  doctrine  which  takes  the  place 
in  the  Buddhist  teaching  of  the  very  ancient  theory  of  '  souls,' 
which  the  Christians  have  inherited  from  the  savage  beliefs 
of  the  earliest  periods  of  history. 

"  The  history  of  an  individual  does  not  begin  with  his  birth, 
but  has  been  endless  ages  in  the  making  ;  and  he  cannot  sever 
himself  from  his  surroundings,  no,  not  for  an  hour.  The 
tiniest  snowdrop  drops  its  fairy  head  just  so  much  and  no 
more,  because  it  is  balanced  by  the  universe.  It  is  a  snow- 
drop, not  an  oak,  and  just  that  kind  of  snowdrop,  because  it 
is  the  outcome  of  the  Karma  of  an  endless  series  of  past  exist- 
ences. It  did  not  begin  to  be  when  the  flower  opened,  or 
when  the  mother  plant  first  peeped  above  the  ground,  or  first 
met  the  embraces  of  the  sun,  or  when  the  bulb  began  to  shoot 


144      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

above  the  soil,  or  at  auy  time  which  you  and  I  can  fix.  .  .  . 
We  may  put  a  new  and  deeper  meaning  into  the  words  of  the 
poet: 

"  '  Our  deeds  follow  us  from  afar ; 

And  what  we  have  been  makes  us  what  we  are.' " 

The  objection  may  be  urged  against  the  Buddhist 
conception  that  we  do  not  choose  to  look  upon  the 
men  who  in  future  times  will  represent  the  incar- 
nation of  our  Karma  as  identical  with  ourselves ;  we 
prefer  to  look  upon  them  as  altogether  different 
beings.  But  here  the  Buddhists  will  have  the  ad- 
vantage. The  identity  obtains  whether  it  be  rec- 
ognized or  not.  It  is  real,  for  the  laws  of  nature 
recognize  it ;  it  is  an  established  fact.  These  future 
incarnations  of  our  Karma  inherit  our  character, 
together  with  all  its  blessings  and  its  curses,  in  the 
same  way  as  "  I "  of  to-day  am  benefited  or  ham- 
pered by  my  actions  from  the  days  of  my  childhood, 
it  matters  little  whether  I  choose  to  recognize  the 
identity  of  myself  or  not. 

We  can  have  no  proper  conception  of  the  action 
of  the  moral  law  until  we  understand  the  interco- 
herence  of  soul-life.  So  long  as  we  cut  it  up  into 
selves,  we  shall  never  cease  to  be  puzzled  with  psy- 
chical, philosophical,  and  moral  problems  which  ap- 
pear insolvable  and  incomprehensible. 

The  great  majority  of  people  who  consider  them- 
selves as  orthodox  Christians  are  no  doubt  believers 
in  the  atman  theory  of  the  soul,  postulating  a  self 
as  the  agent  behind  soul-life  and  looking  upon  it  as 
the  soul-proper ;  yet  the  great  representative  au- 


THE   BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          145 

thorities  of  Christian  orthodoxy,  such  men  as  the 
Apostle  St.  Paul,  Thomas  Aquinas,  Eckhart,  Tauler, 
Ignatius  Loyola,  Tholuck,  and  many  others  show 
strong  tendencies  to  the  doctrine  of  anatman,  or  the 
surrender  of  the  self  as  the  soul  proper.  Christians 
are  shocked  at  the  nihilism  of  the  Buddhist  whose 
highest  aspiration  it  is  to  root  out  his  soul,  viz.,  his 
atman  or  self,  in  order  to  attain  Nirvana  and  be- 
come a  Buddha,  but  they  take  no  offence  when  St. 
Paul  says :  "  I  am  crucified  with  Christ,  yet  not  1 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me." 

NIRVANA 

We  have  learned  that  it  is  as  natural  as  it  is  erro- 
neous for  men  exclusively  trained  in  Western  modes 
of  thought,  to  look  upon  the  principal  doctrine  of 
Buddhist  psychology  as  a  bare  and  flat  denial  of  the 
soul.  In  the  same  way  and  for  similar  reasons  it  is 
as  natural  as  it  erroneous  for  western  minds  edu- 
cated in  Christian  schools  to  look  upon  the  Nirvana 
of  Buddhism  as  an  annihilation,  and  to  characterize 
Buddhist  ethics  as  quietism. 

Nirvana,  the  ideal  goal  of  the  fully  enlightened 
disciple  of  Buddha,  is  the  most  important  term  in 
the  religious  system  of  Buddhism ;  it  is  the  corner- 
stone of  the  whole  structure,  and  yet,  judging  from 
the  various  interpretations  of  the  word  and  the  con- 
troversies that  have  been  waged  about  its  meaning, 
its  application  must  be  either  very  ambiguous,  or  it 
contains  great  difficulties  for  Western  minds. 


146      BUDDHISM  AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

The  common  definition  of  "  Nirvana  "  among  all 
Buddhists  is  "  deliverance,"  viz.,  deliverance  from 
evil,  or  salvation.  The  question  is,  what  is  the  na- 
ture of  this  deliverance  ? 

The  etymology  of  the  word  is  obvious  enough 
Nirvana  means  "  extinction,"  viz.,  the  "  extinction  of 
self,"  which  is  generally  supposed  to  be  the  defini- 
tion of  the  term  given  by  the  Hinayana  school  of 
the  old  southern  Buddhism.*  Those  representa- 
tives of  the  Mahayana  school  of  Japan,  however, 
who  visited  the  "World's  Parliament  of  Eeligions, 
are  wont  to  describe  Nirvana  as  "  the  complete  at- 
tainment of  truth."  In  their  conception,  Nirvana 
is  attained  by  the  extinction  of  the  illusion  of  self, 
with  all  it  implies,  covetousness,  lust,  and  all  sinful 
desires. 

The  main  issue  of  all  the  discussions  concerning 
the  term  Nirvana  is  the  problem  whether  it  must 
be  conceived  as  a  positive  or  a  negative  state  of  ex- 

*  Northern  Buddhists  make  a  distinction  between  Hinayana 
or  "small  vehicle"  (viz.,  of  salvation)  and  Mahayana  or 
"great  vehicle"  ;  the  former  is  the  Southern,  the  latter  the 
Northern  school  of  Buddhist  thought ;  the  former  prefers  to 
some  extent  negative  and  philosophically  strict  definitions, 
while  the  latter  aims  at  positive  and  religious  expressions  ; 
the  former  represents  upon  the  whole  more  faithfully  the  his- 
torical traditions  of  Buddha,  while  the  latter,  in  their  aspira- 
tion to  extend  salvation  to  the  broad  masses  of  mankind,  have 
admitted  many  fantastical  elements.  We  must  add.  how- 
ever, that  these  contrasts  are  in  reality  not  so  sweeping  as 
they  a'ppear  in  a  general  formula,  and  the  distinction  of  the 
Hinayana  and  the  Mahayana,  although  very  convenient  for 
certain  purposes,  is  admissible  only  within  certain  limits. 


THE   BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.         147 

istence,  as  an  eternal  rest  or  a  life  in  paradise,  as  a 
complete  annihilation  or  the  bliss  of  absolute  perfec- 
tion. In  order  to  settle  this  much  mooted  question, 
not  by  an  a  priori  off-hand  method,  but  by  syste- 
matically consulting  the  old  Buddhist  authorities, 
the  Professors  F.  Max  Mliller  and  Childers  have 
collected  and  compared  great  numbers  of  passages 
in  which  the  word  Nirvana  occurs,  and  the  result  is 
that  "  there  is  not  one  passage  which  would  require 
that  its  meaning  should  be  annihilation,"  while 
"most,  if  not  all,"  would  thereby  "  become  perfectly 
unintelligible." 

The  proposition  has  been  made  that  there  are  sev- 
eral kinds  of  Nirvana,  but  Professor  Childers  re- 
gards this  theory  as  a  complete  failure ;  he  says : 

"An  extraordinary  error,  originating,  I  think,  with  Bur- 
nouf,  and  repeated  unsuspectingly  by  several  eminent  Euro- 
pean scholars,  has  done  much  to  involve  the  question  of  Nir- 
vana in  needless  doubt  and  obscurity.  It  is  the  belief  that 
there  are  three  degrees  of  Nirvana,  viz. ,  Nibbana,  Parinibba- 
na,  and  Mahaparinibbana  (ordinary  Nirvana,  complete  Nir- 
vana, and  the  great  complete  Nirvana).  This  idea  is  strangely 
wide  of  the  truth,  for  Parinibbana  means  merely  Nirvana,  or 
the  attainment  of  Nirvana,  and  Mahaparinibbana  means  noth- 
ing more  than  the  death  of  Buddha." 

Professor  Rhys  Davids  sums  up  his  disscussion  of 
the  meaning  of  Nirvana  in  the  following  words  : 

"It  is  the  extinction  of  that  sinful,  grasping  condition  of 
mind  and  heart,  which  would  otherwise,  according  to  the 
great  mystery  of  Karma,  be  the  cause  of  renewed  individual 
existence.  That  extinction  is  to  be  brought  about  by,  and  runs 
parallel  with,  the  growth  of  the  opposite  condition  of  mind 


148      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

and  heart ;  and  it  is  complete  when  that  opposite  condition  is 
reached.  Nirvana  is  therefore  the  same  thing  as  a  sinless,  calm 
state  of  mind  ;  and  if  translated  at  all,  may  best,  perhaps,  be 
rendered  "  holiness,— holiness  that  is,  in  the  Buddhist  sense 
perfect  peace,  goodness,  and  wisdom." 

Professor  Cbilders  presents  us  with  a  careful  ex- 
position of  the  problem  in  his  "  Pali  Dictionary," 
sub  voce  Nibbana,  the  Pali  word  for  Nirvana.  He 
says: 

"  The  difficulty  is  this  :  It  is  true  that  many  expressions 
are  used  of  Nirvana  which  seem  to  imply  annihilation,  but 
on  the  other  hand,  other  equally  numerous  and  equally  forci- 
ble expressions  are  used  which  clearly  point  to  blissful  exist- 
ence. Thus  Nirvana  is  called  Freedom  from  Human  Passion, 
Purity,  Holiness,  Bliss,  Happiness,  the  End  of  Suffering,  the 
Cessation  of  desire,  Peace,  Calm,  Tranquillity,  and  so  on. 
How  is  this  discrepancy  to  be  reconciled  ?  I  reply,  the  word 
nibbdna  is  applied  to  two  different  things,  first  that  annihila- 
tion of  being  which  is  the  goal  of  Buddhism,  and  secondly, 
the  state  of  blissful  sanctification  called  arahatta.  or  Arhat- 
ship,  which  terminates  in  annihilation.  This  fact  at  once  ex- 
plains the  apparent  contradiction. 

"At  first  sight  it  may  appear  inexplicable  that  the  same 
term  should  be  applied  to  two  things  so  different  as  annihila- 
tion and  blissful  existence ;  but  I  think  I  am  able  to  show 
that  after  all  the  phenomenon  may  be  easily  accounted  for 
....  Thus,  if  we  say  'Nirvana  is  the  reward  of  a  vir- 
tuous life,'  this  may,  strictly  speaking  mean  that  annihilation 
is  the  reward  of  a  virtuous  life  ;  but  since  annihilation  can- 
not be  obtained  without  Arhatship,  the  idea  that  Arhatship  is 
the  reward  of  a  virtuous  life,  inevitably  presents  itself  to  the 
mind  at  the  same  time. 

"  Although  expressions  like  '  extinction  is  bliss '  may  sound 
strange  or  even  ridiculous  to  us,  who  have  from  our  earliest 
infancy  been  taught  that  bliss  consists  in  eternal  life,  to  a 


THE   BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          149 

Buddhist,  who  has  always  been  taught  that  existence  is  an 
evil  they  appear  perfectly  natural  and  familiar ;  this  is  a  mere 
question  of  education  and  association  ;  the  words  '  extinction 
is  bliss '  convey  to  the  mind  of  a  Buddhist  the  same  feeling  of 
enthusiastic  longing,  the  same  consciousness  of  sublime  truth, 
that  the  words  'eternal  life  is  bliss'  convey  to  a  Christian." 

Thus  we  have  according  to  Professor  Childers  the 
bliss  of  Arhatship  and  the  complete  extinction  of 
being,  one  as  the  cause  of  the  other.  The  Arhat,  on 
reaching  the  goal  of  Nirvana,  ceases  to  exist  as  an 
individual  person.  He  says : 

"The  doctrine  of  Buddha  on  this  subject  is  perfectly  ex- 
plicit ;  he  even  predicted  his  own  death.  Now,  to  be  the  -ulti- 
mate goal  of  Buddhism.  Arhatship  must  be  an  eternal  state, 
for  if  it  be  not  eternal,  it  must  sooner  or  later  terminate, 
either  in  annihilation,  or  in  a  state  which  is  not  blissful,  in 
either  case  it  is  not  the  goal  of  Buddhism.  But  since  Arhats 
die,  Arhatship  is  not  an  eternal  state  and  therefore  it  is  not  the 
goal  of  Buddhism.  It  is  almost  superfluous  to  add  that  not 
only  is  there  no  trace  in  the  Buddhist  scriptures  of  the 
Arhats  continuing  to  exist  after  death,  but  it  is  deliberately 
stated  in  innumerable  passages,  with  all  the  clearness  and 
emphasis  of  which  language  is  capable,  that  the  Arhat  does 
not  live  again  after  death,  but  ceases  to  exist.  There  is 
probably  no  doctrine  more  distinctive  of  Qakyamuni's  orig- 
inal teaching  than  that  of  the  annihilation  of  being." 

This  solution  appears  to  be  nihilistic ;  but  it  seems 
to  me  that  the  complete  annihilation  of  Gautama 
Siddhartha  does  not  imply  the  complete  annihilation 
of  Buddha.  Buddha  is  said  to  have  entered  Nirvana 
when  he  died.  Yet  at  the  same  time  we  are  told 
that  Buddha  had  attained  Nirvana  already  during 
his  life.  Indeed,  enlightenment  and  Nirvana  are, 


150      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

among  all  Buddhists  of  the  Hinayana  as  well  as  the 
Mahayana  exact  synonyms.  Nirvana,  the  extinction 
of  the  illusion  of  self,  is  the  condition  of  enlighten- 
ment, or  perfect  understanding  of  truth.  A  Buddha 
is  an  ideal  construction  of  a  man  in  whom  all  error 
and  the  consequences  of  error,  desires,  and  sin,  have 
been  abrogated ;  his  will  is  purified,  his  thoughts  are 
undimmed  by  illusions,  and  his  mind  consists  of  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  truth. 

There  is  among  orthodox  Buddhists  no  doubt  at 
all  that  when  a  Buddha  dies  his  physical  existence 
is  dissolved  into  its  elements ;  and  this  dissolution  is 
regarded  as  a  final  deliverance  of  that  part  of  man's 
nature  which  is  the  cause  of  pain  and  suffering  ;  but 
the  truth,  being  that  element  which  constitutes  his 
Buddhahood,  remains.  The  life  in  the  flesh  is  ended, 
but  the  life  in  Nirvana  continues.  Now,  as  Buddha- 
hood  is  considered  the  aim  of  all  evolution  of  life, 
while  the  by-paths  of  sin  and  error,  which  consist  in 
circles  of  useless  migrations,  lead  us  away  from  our 
goal,  Buddha  is  praised  for  having  escaped  the  pain- 
ful repetition  of  the  course  of  migrations.  A 
Buddha  has  reached  the  goal  and  has  attained  eter- 
nity. He  is  reborn  into  the  world  of  error,  only  to 
appear  as  a  teacher  to  point  out  to  others  the  escape 
from  illusion,  sin,  and  death. 

According  to  the  orthodox  Buddhist  conception 
there  is  no  doubt  about  it  that  the  incarnation  of 
Buddha  in  the  person  of  Gautama  Siddhartha  has 
passed  away.  Gautama  has  died  and  his  body  will 
not  be  resurrected.  But  Buddha  continues  to  live 


THE  BASIC  CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          151 

in  the  body  of  the  Dharma,  i.  e.,  the  law  or  religion 
of  Buddha  ;  and,  in  so  far  as  he  is  the  truth,  he  is 
immortal  and  eternal.  The  whole  world  may  break 
to  pieces,  but  Buddha  will  not  die.  The  words  of 
Buddha  are  imperishable.  We  read  in  the  "  Bud- 
dhist Birth  Stories  "  the  following  remarkable  pas- 
sage which  strongly  reminds  us  of  Matthew  xxiv. 
35.  *  One  of  the  Bodhisattvas,  taking  the  resolution 
of  becoming  a  Buddha,  says : 

"  The  Buddhas  speak  not  doubtful  words,  the  Conquerors 

speak  not  vain  words, 
There  is  no  falsehood  in  the  Buddhas, — verily  I  shall  become 

a  Buddha. 

As  a  clod  cast  into  the  air  doth  surely  fall  to  the  ground, 
So  the  word  of  the  glorious  Buddhas  is  sure  and  everlasting. 
As  the  death  of  all  mortals  is  sure  and  constant, 
So  the  word  of  the  glorious  Buddhas  is  sure  and  everlasting, 
As  the  rising  of  the  sun  is  certain  when  night  has  faded, 
So  the  word  of  the  glorious  Buddhas  is  sure  and  everlasting. 
As  the  roaring  of  a  lion  who  has  left  his  den  is  certain, 
So  the  word  of  the  glorious  Buddhas  is  sure  and  everlasting. 
As  the  delivery  of  women  with  child  is  certain, 
So  the  word  of  the  glorious  Buddhas  is  sure  and  everlasting." 

Christ,  when  taking  leave  of  his  disciples,  comforts 
them,  saying,  "  Lo  I  am  with  you  alway  even  unto 
the  end  of  the  world,"  and  Buddha  expresses  the 
same  idea  when  in  the  hour  of  his  death  the  Mallas 
are  anxious  to  behold  the  Blessed  One.  Buddha 
says : 

"  Seeking  the  way,  you  must  exert  yourselves  and  strive 
*  Cf.  also  Mark  xiii.  31 ;  Luke  xvi.  17  ;  Luke  xxi.  33. 


152      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

with  diligence — it  is  not  enough  to  have  seen  me  !  Walk,  as  I 
have  commanded  you  ;  get  rid  of  all  the  tangled  net  of  sorrow  ; 

".Walk  in  the  way  with  steadfast  aim.  ...  A  sick  man 
depending  on  the  healing  power  of  medicine, 

"Gets  rid  of  all  his  ailments  easily  without  beholding  the 
physician.  He  who  does  not  do  what  I  command  sees  me  in 
vain,  this  brings  no  profit ; 

"Whilst  he  who  lives  far  off  from  where  I  am,  and  yet 
walks  righteously,  is  ever  near  me  !  A  man  may  dwell  beside 
me,  and  yet,  being  disobedient,  be  far  away  from  me." 
(Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XIX.  pp.  289-290.) 

He  who  knows  the  truth  and  leads  a  life  of  truth, 
walking  in  the  eightfold  path  of  righteousness,  has 
attained  to  Nirvana  and  is  with  Buddha.  And  this 
view  can  only  be  called  nihilism  if  Truth  is  an  un- 
meaning word,  and  if  moral  aspirations  are  destruc- 
tive of  life. 

There  are  many  synonyms  and  explanatory  epithets 
of  Nirvana.  For  an  enumeration  of  Pali  synonyms 
of  Nirvana  see  Childers's  Dictionary  of  the  Pali 
Language,  pp.  272,  274-,  among  which  are  such  expres- 
sions as  the  Imperishable,  the  Infinite,  the  Eternal, 
the  Everlasting,  the  Supreme,  the  Transcendent,  the 
Serene,  the  Formless,  the  Void,  Cessation,  the  Uncon- 
ditioned, the  Goal,  the  Other  Shore,  Kest,  the  True 
or  the  Truth.  Nirvana  is  compared  to  "  an  island 
which  no  flood  can  overwhelm,"  to  a  "  city  of  peace," 
the  "  jewelled  realm  of  happiness,"  "  an  escape  from 
the  dominion  of  Mara,"  the  tempter,  or  the  evil 
one ;  and  the  disciple  of  Buddha,  we  are  told,  will 
overcome  "  the  world  of  men,  the  world  of  Yama,* 

*  The  god  of  Death. 


THE   BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          153 

and  the  world  of  gods."  The  Siamese  always  refer 
to  it  as  in  the  phrases  "  Nirvana  is  a  place  of  comfort 
where  there  is  no  care ;  lovely  is  the  glorious  realm 
of  Nirvana."  In  Chapter  XXVI.  of  the  Dhamma- 
pada  we  read : 

"  When  you  have  understood  the  destruction  of  all  that 
was  made,  you  will  understand  that  which  was  not  made." 

The  most  negative  expression  of  all  the  synonyms 
of  Nirvana  is  the  term  "  Void,"  and  its  mere  exist- 
ence in  Buddhist  books  appears  to  favor  the  nihil- 
istic conception  of  Buddhism.  But  what,  in  that 
case,  shall  we  make  of  such  sayings  as  "the 
voidness  alone  is  self-existent  and  perfect "  ?  The 
"  abstract "  may  be  a  more  appropriate  translation 
than  "the  void,"  at  least  it  would  be  less  objec- 
tionable to  those  who  have  devoted  themselves  to 
the  study  of  the  philosophers  of  abstract  thought. 

It  is  sometimes  difficult  to  understand  the  reason 
why  an  idea  such  as  hollowness  or  emptiness  or 
voidness,  which  to  us  denotes  the  absence  of  exist- 
ence, has  become  pregnant  with  meaning  in  other 
languages ;  and  we  must  be  careful  not  to  impute 
the  negativism  of  our  speech  to  the  thought  of 
others.  Thus  we  find,  on  an  old  palm-leaf  manuscript 
written  in  Sanskrit  and  preserved  since  609  A.  D. 
in  the  Buddhist  monastery  of  Horiuzi,  Japan, 
"  emptiness  "  identified  with  "  form  "  ;  *  and  that 

*  See  page  48  in  The  Ancient  Palmleaves,  edited  by  F.  Max 
Miiller  and  Bunyin  Nanjio.  Appendix  by  G.  Buhler.  (Oxford, 

1884.) 


154      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

most  remarkable  philosopher  of  China,  Lau-tsze, 
gives  us  the  key  to  the  probable  solution  of  the 
problem  when  he  says  in  "  Tau-Teh-King,"  XI. : 

"  The  thirty  spokes  unite  in  the  one  nave  ;  but  it  is  on  the 
empty  space  (for  the  axle)  that  the  use  of  the  wheel  depends. 
Clay  is  fashioned  into  vessels  ;  but  it  is  on  their  empty  hol- 
lowness  that  their  use  depends.  The  door  and  windows  are 
cut  out  (from  the  walls)  to  form  an  apartment ;  but  it  is  on 
the  empty  space  (within),  that  its  use  depends.  Therefore, 
what  has  a  (positive)  existence  serves  for  profitable  adapta- 
tion, and  what  has  not  that  for  (actual)  usefulness. 

Buddha  himself  abstained  from  making  any  pos- 
itive statements  as  to  the  nature  of  Nirvana. 
Whether  we  call  it  by  positive  or  negative  names 
is  a  matter  of  indifference  and  does  not  conduce 
to  holiness.  In  this  sense  Buddha  answers  the  ques- 
tion of  Malukya:  "Does  the  Tathagata  live  on 
beyond  death  or  does  he  not  live  on  beyond  death  ? " 
Buddha  says : 

"  If  a  man  were  struck  by  a  poisoned  arrow,  and  his  friends 
and  relatives  called  in  a  skilful  physician,  what  if  the  wounded 
man  said,  '  I  shall  not  allow  my  wound  treated  until  1  know 
who  the  man  is  by  whom  I  have  been  wounded,  whether  he  is 
a  noble,  a  Brahman,  a  Vaicya,  or  Qudra,' — or  if  he  said, 'I 
shall  not  allow  my  wound  to  be  treated  until  I  know  what 
they  call  the  man  who  has  wounded  me,  and  of  what  family 
he  is,  whether  he  is  tall,  or  small,  or  of  middle  stature,  and 
how  his  weapon  was  made  with  which  he  has  struck  me.' " 

This  much  is  certain,  that  Buddha,  while  speaking 
of  the- bliss  of  Nirvana,  denied  the  continued  exist- 
ence of  man's  individualized  body.  Arhatship  was 
eternal  to  him,  but  the  Arhat's  body  dies. 


THE   BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          155 

Surrounded  by  these  difficulties  and  contradictory 
opinions,  let  us  bear  in  mind  how  close  the  resem- 
blance is  between  the  Buddhist  idea  of  Nirvana  and 
the  Christian  hope  of  Heaven.  It  has  often  been 
remarked  that  many  passages  of  the  sacred  writings 
of  Buddhism  would  remain  perfectly  intelligible  if 
we  replace  the  word  Nirvana  by  Heaven.  This 
would,  in  one  respect,  be  very  misleading  ;  Christians 
cling  to  the  idea  that  in  heaven  the  personality  of 
the  soul  is  preserved  as  a  separate  and  discrete 
entity.  The  Christian  hope  of  resurrection  longs 
for  a  preservation  of  the  ego,  not  of  the  mind.  And 
on  this  point  Buddhism  is  very  unequivocal.  Bud- 
dha denies  the  existence  of  any  soul-substratum,  or 
ego-entity ;  he  rejects  the  old  Brahmanical  doctrine 
of  the  atman,  or  self,  which  is  said  to  be  the  meta- 
physical subject  of  man's  sensations,  thoughts,  and 
volitions.  But  while  there  is  an  obvious  difference 
between  Nirvana  and  Heaven,  there  is  also  a  close 
resemblance  not  only  of  allegorical  expressions  and 
descriptions  of  the  mystics,  but  also  in  the  attempt 
at  defining  its  nature  in  exact  terms.  There  are 
some  remarkable  passages  in  the  New  Testament, 
one  of  which  indicates  not  less  clearly  that  the  final 
aim  of  Christ's  mission  is  the  obliteration  of  person- 
ality by  saying,  "  that  God  will  be  all  in  all,"  (1 
Cor.  xv.  28)  and  this  final  aim  is  characterized  in 
the  words :  "  There  remaineth  therefore  a  rest  to 
the  people  of  God  "  (Hebr.  iv.  9).  Comparing  this 
rest  to  a  great  Sabbath  the  Apostle  says :  "  He  that 
is  entered  into  his  rest,  he  also  has  ceased  from  his 


156      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

o\vn  works  as  God  did  from  his.  Let  us  labor  there- 
fore to  enter  into  that  rest."  And  Jesus  himself 
says, "  Take  my  yoke  upon  you  .  .  .  and  ye  shall  find 
rest  unto  your  souls."  In  the  face  of  these  passages 
we  can  scarcely  say  that  Christianity  regards  Heaven 
as  a  locality,  and  when  we  try  to  define  positively 
what  the  orthodox  Christian  position  is,  or  ought 
to  be,  we  shall  find  ourselves  implicated  in  no  less 
intricate  historico-philological  problems  than  our 
Pali  scholars  are  in  their  investigations  of  Nirvana. 
When  Christian  missionaries  discovered  some  Chris- 
tian color-prints  of  Jesus  and  biblical  stories  in 
Thibet,  the  Lama  (as  we  read  in  Schlagintweit's 
"  Buddhism  in  Thibet,"  p.  99)  presented  to  them  his 
view  of  the  Christian  salvation,  as  follows : 

"  Christianity  does  not  afford  final  emancipation.  Accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  their  religion,  he  said,  the  pious  are 
rewarded  with  a  re-birth  amongst  the  servants  of  the  supreme 
God,  when  they  are  obliged  to  pass  an  eternity  in  reciting 
hymns,  psalms,  and  prayers  in  his  glory.  Such  beings,  he 
argued,  are  consequently  not  yet  freed  from  metempsychosis, 
for  who  can  assert  that  in  the  event  of  their  relaxing  in  the 
duty  assigned  them,  they  shall  not  be  expelled  from  the  world 
where  God  resides  and  in  punishment  be  re-born  in  the  habita- 
tion of  the  wretched." 

Schlagintweit  adds : 

' '  He  must  have  heard  of  the  expulsion  of  the  bad  angels 
from  Heaven." 

The  Lamaistic  misconception  of  the  Christian 
Heaven  seems  to  be  analogous  to  the  Christian  mis 
conception  of  the  Buddhist  Nirvana.  One  is  quite 
as  excusable  as  the  other. 


THE   BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.          157 

Schlagintweit  says,  that  "  genuine  Buddhism  re- 
jects the  idea  of  a  particular  locality  being  appro- 
priated to  Nirvana,"  and  Nagasena  says  to  King 
Milinda,  "  Nirvana  is  wherever  the  precepts  can  be 
observed  ...  it  may  be  anywhere."  When  these 
passages  are  compared  with  the  doctrine  of  Jesus, 
who  says :  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you," 
we  should  not  be  astonished  to  find  some  mystic 
Lamas  of  Thibet  declare  that  since  the  Christian 
doctrine  of  Heaven,  according  to  Christ's  own  teach- 
ing, is  purely  internal  and  does  not  imply  the  positive 
existence  of  a  domain  somewhere  in  space,  it  implies 
an  utter  and  desolate  nihilism. 

Schlagintweit  *  says  :  "  The  sacred  Buddhist  books 
declare  at  every  occasion  that  it  is  impossible  pos- 
itively to  define  the  attributes  and  properties  of 
Nirvana."  A  Thibetan  Buddhist  scholar  might  say 
the  same  thing  to  his  countrymen  in  explanation  of 
the  Christian  conception  of  Heaven. 

If  we  were  to  hunt  for  Christian  expressions  of 
Heaven  which  are  similar  to  the  Buddhist  similes  of 
Nirvana,  we  could  find  plenty  of  them,  especially  in 
the  sermons  of  the  mystics.  Those  who  are  inclined 
to  philosophical  speculation  present  the  closest  ap- 
proach to  a  so-called  negative  formulation  :  Heaven, 
not  otherwise  than  Nirvana,  is  praised  as  an  utter 
extermination  of  self ;  self  disappears  in  the  omni- 
presence of  God,  and  reappears  only  as  the  trans- 
figured standard-bearer  of  the  cause  of  righteousness. 

Whether  or   not  this  view  is  to  be  regarded  as 

*  L.c.,  p.  99. 


158      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

nihilism  should  be  judged  from  the  course  of  ethics 
which  is  derived  from  it.  If  Buddhistic  ethics  are 
correctly  characterized  as  quietism,  we  can  justly 
classify  its  doctrines  as  nihilism.  Now  we  find  that 
the  same  objections  made  by  Western  people  must 
have  been  made  in  Buddha's  time  by  men  trained  in 
the  schools  of  Brahmanism ;  there  is  a  passage  in  the 
Mahavagga  in  which  Buddha  very  plainly  expounds 
his  view  of  action  and  non-action.  He  admits  that 
he  teaches  a  certain  kind  of  quietism,  but  he 
vigorously  rejects  the  quietism  of  indolence  and  in- 
activity. We  read  in  VI.,  31,  4 : 

"  Slha,  the  general,  said  to  the  Blessed  One  :  '  I  have  heard, 
Lord,  that  the  Samana  Gotama  denies  the  result  of  actions  ; 
he  teaches  the  doctrine  of  non-action,  and  in  this  doctrine  he 
trains  his  disciples.  Now,  Lord,  those  who  speak  thus,  .  .  . 
do  they  say  the  truth  or  do  they  bear  false  witness  against 
the  Blessed  One,  and  pass  off  a  spurious  Dhamma  as  your 
Dhamma  ? ' " 

The  answer  given  by  Buddha  is  as  follows : 

"  There  is  a  way,  Siha,  in  which  one  speaking  truly  could 
say  of  me  :  '  The  Samawa  Gotama  denies  action  ;  he  teaches 
the  doctrine  of  non-action  ;  and  in  this  doctrine  he  trains  his 
disciples.' 

"And  again,  Siha,  there  is  a  way  in  which  one  speaking 
truly  could  say  of  me  : '  The  Samana  Gotama  maintains  action  ; 
he  teaches  the  doctrine  of  action ;  and  in  this  doctrine  he 
trains  his  disciples.' 

"And  in  which  way  is  it,  Siha,  that  one  speaking  could  truly 
say  of  me :  '  The  Samana  Gotama  denies  action  ;  he  teaches 
the  doctrine  of  non-action  ;  and  in  this  doctrine  he  trains  his 
disciples  ? '  I  teach,  Siha,  the  not-doing  of  such  actions  as  are 
unrighteous,  either  by  deed,  or  by  word,  or  by  thought ;  I 
teach  the  not  bringing  about  of  the  manifold  conditions  (of 


THE  BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF   BUDDHISM.         159 

heart)  which  are  evil  and  not  good.     In  this  way,  Siha,  one 
speaking  truly  could  say  of  me  : '  The  Samaraa  Gotama,  etc.' 

•'And  in  which  way  is  it,  Siha,  that  one  speaking  truly 
could  say  of  me  :  '  The  Samana  Gotama  maintains  action  ;  he 
teaches  the  doctrine  of  action  ;  and  in  this  doctrine  he  trains 
his  disciples  ? '  I  teach,  Siha,  the  doing  of  such  actions  as  are 
righteous,  by  deed,  by  word,  and  by  thought :  I  teach  the 
bringing  about  of  the  manifold  conditions  (of  heart)  which 
are  good  and  not  evil.  In  this  way,  etc." 

In  the  same  strain  Buddha  explains  his  doctrine 
of  annihilation  and  contemptibleness,  not  as  an  ab- 
solute annihilation,  but  as  an  annihilation  of  sin  and 
man's  hankering  after  sin.  He  says : 

•'I  proclaim,  Siha,  the  annihilation  of  lust,  of  ill-will,  of 
delusion.  ,  .  . 

"  I  deem,  Siha,  unrighteous  actions  contemptible.     .     .     . 

"He  who  has  freed  himself,  Siha,  from  all  conditions  (of 
heart)  which  are  evil  and  not  good,  which  ought  to  be  burned 
away,  who  has  rooted  them  out,  and  has  done  away  with 
them  as  a  palm  tree  is  rooted  out,  so  that  they  are  destroyed 
and  cannot  grow  up  again — such  a  person  do  I  call  accom- 
plished in  Tapas."*  (Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  XVII, 
pp.  110,  114.) 

Far  from  preaching  quietism,  Buddha's  sermons, 
parables,  and  sentences  abound  in  exhortations  to 
indefatigable  and  energetic  activity.  We  read  in 
the  Dhammapada : 

"  He  who  does  not  rouse  himself  when  it  is  time  to  rise, who 
though  young  and  strong  is  full  of  sloth,  whose  will  and 


*The  literal  meaning  of  Tapas  is  "burning";  it  means  self- 
mortification.  Buddha  rejects  self-mortification  and  substi- 
tutes for  it  the  eradication  of  all  sinful  desire. 


160      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

thought  are  weak,  that  lazy  and  idle  man  will  never  find  the 
way  to  knowledge  [enlightenment] . 

"  If  anything  is  to  be  done,  let  a  man  do  it,  let  him  attack 
it  vigorously."* 

The  difficulty  to  a  \vestern  mind  in  the  compre- 
hension of  the  term  Nirvana  lies  mainly  in  our  habit 
of  conceiving  the  nature  of  the  soul  in  the  old  Brah- 
manical  sense  of  an  ego-entity  as  the  doer  of  our 
acts,  the  perceiver  of  our  sensations,  and  the  thinker 
of  our  thoughts.  In  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  hun- 
dred, he  who  denies  the  existence  of  that  metaphy- 
sical being  is  understood  by  people  educated  in  our 
present  modes  of  thought  as  denying  the  existence 
of  our  soul  itself. 

Buddha  taught  the  non-existence  of  the  self,  and 
understood  by  self  the  atman  of  the  philosophers  of 
his  time.  Again  and  again  he  inculcates  the  em- 
phatic injunction  that  the  illusion  of  self  must  be 
overcome.  The  illusion  of  self  is  the  secret  cause  of 
all  selfishness;  it  begets  all  those  evil  desires  (covet- 
ousness,  greed  of  power,  and  lust)  of  which  man 
must  free  himself.  As  soon  as  the  illusion  of  self  is 
overcome,  we  cease  to  think  of  injuring  others  for 
the  benefit  of  ourselves. 

The  Buddhist  conception  of  Nirvana  is  most 
assuredly  not  the  annihilation  of  thought,  but  its 
completion  and  perfection.  We  read  in  the  Dham- 
mapada,  verse  21 : 

"  Earnestness  is  the  path  of  immortality  (Nirvana),  thought- 


*Ibid.,  pp.  68  and  75. 


THE   BASIC    CONCEPTS    OF    BUDDHISM.          161 

lessness  the  path  of  death.     Those  who  are  in  earnest  do  not 
die  ;  those  who  are  thoughtless  are  as  if  dead  already." 

This  does  not  savor  of  nihilism. 

That  Nirvana  is  the  domain  of  the  ideal,  the  realm 
of  pure  forms,  appears  very  clearly  from  the  Nirmana 
Sutra  and  other  Chinese  sources,  in  which  Nirvana 
is  defined  as  "  the  permanent  state  of  being,"  which 
is  attained  by  letting  go  the  conditions  of  imper- 
manence,  viz.,  materiality  and  egoity  or  rupa  and 
atman.  Nirvana  is  the  attainment  of  the  state 
where  there  is  neither  birth  nor  death,  and  is  illus- 
trated by  the  simile  of  the  "guest"  and  the  "dust," 
as  contrasted  to  the  "  rest "  of  pure  space.  Man  is 
a  guest  in  this  world  and  is  in  a  condition  of  con- 
stant commotion  as  are  the  dust  .particles  hovering 
in  a  sunbeam.  Nirvana,  however,  is  comparable  to 
the  immutability  of  pure  space  which,  while  every- 
thing is  changing,  remains  at  rest.* 

Nirvana  is  commonly  described  in  negative  terms, 
but  it  is  positive  which  is  explained  in  a  conversa- 
tion between  an  unbeliever  and  Buddha,  related  in 
the  Parinirvana  Sutra  (Chap,  xxxix.  1)  as  follows : 

"  There  was  a  Brahmatchari  called  Basita,  who  resumed 
the  conversation  thus  :  '  Gotama  !  Is  that  which  you  call  Nir- 
vana a  permanent  state  of  being  or  not  ? '  '  Nirvana  consists  in 
the  absence  [non-existence]  of  sorrow.  Yes,  Brahmatchari,  it 
may  be  so  defined.'  Basita  said  :  '  Gotama,  there  are  four  kinds 
of  condition  in  the  world  which  are  spoken  of  as  non-existent : 
the  first,  that  which  is  not  as  yet  in  being,  like  the  pitcher  to 


*A  Catena  of  Buddhist  Scriptures,  from  the  Chinese.    By 
Samuel  Beal,  pp.  99  and  157. 
II 


162      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

be  made  out  of  the  clay  ;  secondly,  that  which  having  existed, 
has  been  destroyed,  as  a  broken  pitcher ;  third,  that  which 
consists  in  the  absence  of  something  different  from  itself,  as 
we  say  the  ox  is  not  a  horse  ;  and,  lastly,  that  which  is  purely 
imaginary  as  the  hair  of  the  tortoise,  or  the  horn  of  the  hare. 
If,  then,  by  having  got  rid  of  sorrow  we  have  arrived  at 
Nirvana,  Nirvana  is  the  same  as  '  nothingness,'  and  may  be 
considered  as  non-existent ;  but,  if  so,  how  can  you  define  it 
as  permanence,  joy,  personality,  and  purity. 

"Buddha  said:  'Illustrious  disciple,  Nirvana  is  one  of  this 
sort,  it  is  not  like  the  pitcher  not  yet  made  out  of  the  clay,  nor 
is  it  like  the  nothingness  of  the  pitcher  which  has  been 
broken ;  nor  is  it  like  the  horn  of  the  hare,  nor  the  hair  of 
the  tortoise,  something  purely  imaginary.  But  it  may  be 
compared  to  the  nothingness  defined  as  the  absence  of  some- 
thing different  from  itself.  Illustrious  disciple,  as  you  say, 
although  the  ox  has  no  quality  of  the  horse  in  it,  you  cannot 
say  that  the  ox  does  not  exist ;  and  though  the  horse  has 
no  quality  of  the  ox  in  it,  you  cannot  say  that  the  horse 
does  not  exist.  Nirvana  is  just  so.  In  the  midst  of  sorrow 
there  is  no  Nirvana,  and  in  Nirvana  there  is  no  sorrow.  So 
we  may  justly  define  Nirvana  as  that  sort  of  non-existence 
which  consists  in  the  absence  of  something  essentially  dif- 
ferent." 

Buddhism  is  commonly  classified  as  pessimism. 
This  is  true  in  so  far  as  the  Buddhist  recognizes  the 
existence  of  suffering,  but  it  is  not  true  if  by  pessi- 
mism is  to  be  understood  that  world-pain  which 
gives  up  life  and  the  duties  of  life  in  despair.  Says 
Oldenberg,  speaking  of  the  Buddhist  canon : 

"  Some  writers  have  often  represented  the  tone  prevailing 
in  it,  as  if  it  were  peculiarly  characterized  by  a  feeling  of 
melancholy  which  bewails  in  endless  grief  the  unreality  of 
being.  In  this  they  have  altogether  misunderstood  Buddhism. 
The  true  Buddhist  certainly  sees  in  this  world  a  state  of  con- 


THE  BASIC   CONCEPTS   OF  BUDDHISM.          168 

tinuous  sorrow,  but  this  sorrow  only  awakes  in  him  a  feeling 
of  compassion  for  those  who  are  yet  in  the  world  ;  for  him- 
self he  feels  no  sorrow  nor  compassion,  for  he  knows  he  is 
near  his  goal  which  stands  awaiting  him,  noble  beyond  all 
else." 

The  good  tidings  of  Buddha's  religion  are  not  so 
much  the  recognition  of  the  existence  of  pain  and 
care  as  the  conquest  of  evil  and  the  escape  from  suf- 
fering. The  following  verses  from  the  Dhammapada 
have  no  pessimistic  ring : 

"Let  us  live  happily  then,  not  hating  those  who  hate  us  ! 
Among  men  who  hate  us,  let  us  dwell  free  from  hatred  ! 

"Let  us  live  happily  then,  free  from  ailments  among  the 
ailing !  Among  men  who  are  ailing,  let  us  dwell  free  from 
ailments ! 

"  Let  us  live  happily  then,  free  from  greed  among  the  greedy  ! 
Among  men  who  are  greedy,  let  us  dwell  free  from  greed  !  " 

The  Buddhist  Nirvana,  accordingly,  can  only  be 
conceived  as  a  negative  condition  by  those  who  are 
still  entangled  in  the  illusion  of  self.  Nirvana  is  not 
death  but  eternal  life,  not  annihilation  but  immor- 
tality, not  destruction  but  indestructibility.  Were 
truth  and  morality  negative,  Nirvana  would  be  neg- 
ative also  ;  as  they  are  positive,  Nirvana  is  positive. 
The  soul  of  every  man  continues  in  what  Buddhists 
call  his  Karma,  and  he  who  attains  Buddhahood 
becomes  thereby  identical  with  truth  itself,  which  is 
everlasting  and  omnipresent,  pervading  not  only  this 
world  system,  but  all  other  worlds  that  are  to  be  in 
the  future.  For  truth  is  the  same  to-day  as  it  will 
be  to-morrow.  Truth  is  the  water  of  life,  it  is  the 


164      BUDDHISM  AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN  CRITICS. 

ambrosia  of  the  soul.  The  more  our  mind  rids  itself 
of  selfishness  and  partakes  of  the  truth,  the  higher 
shall  we  rise  into  that  domain  where  all  tribulations 
and  anxieties  have  disappeared,  for  there  sin  is 
blotted  out  and  death  conquered. 


BUDDHISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY. 

nHRISTIANITY,  including  Roman  and  Greek 
^  Catholics,  the  Protestants  and  all  the  smaller 
sects,  may  lay  claim  to  about  twenty-six  per  cent, 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  and  ranks,  in  number 
of  adherents,  as  the  second  greatest  religion.  It  is 
considerably  surpassed  by  Buddhism,  which  is  calcu- 
lated by  Prof.  Rhys  Davids  to  count  five  hundred 
million  adherents,  or  forty  per  cent,  of  all  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  earth.*  The  next  religions  f  in  order  are 
Hinduism  with  thirteen,  and  Islam  with  twelve  and 

*  Sir  Monier  Monier-Williams  has  made  the  objection  that 
the  Chinese  Buddhists  are  at  the  same  time  Confucianists 
and  Taoists,  therefore  he  claims  that  if  the  number  of  Bud- 
dhists were  reduced  to  those  who  are  true  Buddhists,  and  noth- 
ing but  Buddhists,  Christianity  could  easily  be  proved  to  be 
numerically  the  first  religion  of  the  world.  This  may  be  true, 
but  is  this  method  of  using  statistics  legitimate  ?  Would  it 
not  in  that  case  be  fair  to  apply  the  same  restriction  to  both 
sides?  The  number  of  Christians  would  shrink  in  no  less  de- 
gree if  we  counted  the  real  Christians,  or  at  least  the  confessed 
Christians  only,  which  in  the  United  States  would  reduce  them 
to  the  churched  people  who  are  less  than  one-tenth  of  the 
entire  population. 

f  For  details  see  the  statistical  tables  on  pp.  4-5  of  Rhys 
Davids's  Buddhism  published  in  the  series  of  Non-Christian 
Religious  Systems,  London,  1890. 

165 


166      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

one  half  per  cent.  In  addition  we  have  one  half 
per  cent.  Jews,  and  eight  per  cent,  of  other  creeds 
of  less  importance. 

Now  it  is  a  strange  fact  that  Buddhism  and  Chris- 
tianity, constituting  together  sixty-six  per  cent., 
which  is  considerably  more  than  one  half  of  man- 
kind, possess  several  most  important  features  in 
common,  and  their  agreement  cannot  be  a  product 
of  mere  chance.  It  is  well  known  that  many  Chris- 
tian missionaries  *  were  quite  at  a  loss  to  account 
for  so  many  striking  coincidences.  Bishop  Bigandet, 
the  Apostolic  Vicar  of  Ava  and  Pegu,  writes  : 

"  Most  of  the  moral  truths,  prescribed  by  the  Gospel,  are  to 
be  met  with  in  the  Buddhistic  scriptures.  ...  In  reading  the 
particulars  of  the  life  of  the  last  Buddha,  Gaudama,  it  is  im- 
possible not  to  feel  reminded  of  many  circumstances  relating 
to  our  Saviour's  life,  such  as  it  has  been  sketched  out  by  the 
Evangelists." 

The  Rev.  Hampden  C.  Du  Bose,  a  Protestant  mis- 
sionary, says  about  Romanism  and  Buddhism  :  t 

"  The  traveller  who  notes  the  similarity  between  those  two 
great  systems  of  faith  and  worship  must  on  comparison  con- 
clude that  Romanism  is  Buddhism  prepared  for  a  foreign 
market,— Buddhism  adapted  to  a  Western  civilization.  The 
question  troubled  the  earlier  Catholic  missionaries,  and  '  Pre- 
mare  ascribed  these  ceremonies  to  the  Devil,  who  had  thus 
imitated  holy  mother  Church,  in  order  to  scandalize  and 
oppose  its  rights.'  'To  those  who  admit  that  most  of  the 
Romish  ceremonies  are  borrowed  from  Paganism,  there  is  less 
difficulty  in  accounting  for  the  resemblance.'" 


*  Quoted  in  Ihe  Monist,  Vol.  IV,  No.  3,  p.  418. 
t  The  Dragon,  Image,  and  Demon,  p.  290. 


BUDDHISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  167 

And  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  Hue  and  Gabet,  ex- 
press their  views  of  the.  subject  as  follows :  * 

"  Upon  the  most  superficial  examination  of  the  reforms  and 
innovations  introduced  by  Tsong-Kaba  into  the  Lamanesque 
worship,  one  must  be  struck  with  their  affinity  to  Catholicism. 
The  cross,  the  mitre,  the  dalmatida,  the  cope,  which  the  Grand 
Lamas  wear  on  their  journeys,  or  when  they  are  performing 
some  ceremony  out  of  the  temple  ;  the  service  with  double 
choirs,  the  psalmody,  the  exorcisms,  the  censer  suspended 
from  five  chains,  and  which  you  can  open  or  close  at  pleasure  ; 
the  benedictions  given  by  the  Lamas  by  extending  the  right 
hand  over  the  heads  of  the  faithful ;  the  chaplet,  ecclesiastical 
celibacy,  spiritual  retirement,  the  worship  of  the  saints,  the 
fasts,  the  processions,  the  litanies,  the  holy  water,  all  these 
are  analogies  between  the  Buddhists  and  ourselves.  Now, 
can  it  be  said  that  these  analogies  are  of  Christian  origin? 
We  think  so.  We  have  indeed  found,  neither  in  the  traditions 
nor  in  the  monuments  of  the  country,  any  positive  proof  of 
their  adoption,  still  it  is  perfectly  legitimate  to  put  forward 
conjectures  which  possess  all  the  characteristics  of  the  most 
emphatic  probability. 

There  are  some  other  less  striking,  but  by  no 
means  less  remarkable  similarities  that  obtain  be- 
tween the  cults  "of  Buddhism  and  Christianity,  and 
it  would  take  volumes  to  explain  them  all.  We 
mention  only  one  more  instance  which  is  the  "  tee  " 
in  Buddhist  pagodas,  which  is  represented  by  a 
canopy  over  Roman  Catholic  altars.  The  Buddhist 
tee  is  originally  an  umbrella,  viz.,  "  the  umbrella 
of  sovereignty "  which  when  executed  in  stone 
assumed  a  square  form.  There  are  many  tees  in 
existence  which  are  over  2,000  years  old.  The  old- 

*  Travels  in  Tartary,  Thibet,  and  China,  Eng.  3d  Ed. ,  p.  50. 


168      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

est  tee  that  still  preserves  the  exact  shape  of  an 
umbrella  is  still  found  in  -the  caves  of  Ajanta. 
The  canopy  in  the  Roman  Catholic  ritual  is  ex- 
plained as  the  divine  Presence  that  overshadows 
the  altar. 

The  Jesuit  missionaries  believe  that  the  Buddhists 
adopted  their  rituals  from  Roman  Catholic  mission- 
aries. They  say : 

"  It  is  known  that,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  at  the  time 
of  the  domination  of  the  Mongol  emperors,  there  existed  fre- 
quent relations  between  the  Europeans  and  the  peoples  of 
Upper  Asia.  We  have  already,  in  the  former  part  of  our 
narrative,  referred  to  these  celebrated  embassies  which  the 
Tartar  conquerors  sent  to  Rome,  to  France,  and  to  England. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  the  barbarians  who  thus  visited  Europe 
must  have  been  struck  with  the  pomp  and  splendor  of  the 
ceremonies  of  Catholic  worship,  and  must  have  carried  back 
with  them  into  the  desert  enduring  memories  of  what  they 
had  seen.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  also  known  that,  at  the 
same  period,  bi'ethren  of  various  religious  orders  undertook 
remote  pilgrimages  for  the  purpose  of  introducing  Christianity 
into  Tartary ;  and  these  must  have  penetrated  at  the  same 
time  into  Thibet,  among  the  Si-Fan,  and  among  the  Mongols 
on  the  Blue  Sea.  Jean  de  Montcorvin,  Archbishop  of  Peking, 
had  already  organized  a  choir  of  Mongol  monks,  who  daily 
practised  the  recitation  of  the  psalms  and  the  ceremonies  of 
the  Catholic  faith.  Now,  if  one  reflects  that  Tsong-Kaba 
lived  precisely  at  the  period  when  the  Christian  religion  was 
being  introduced  into  Central  Asia,  it  will  be  no  longer  matter 
of  astonishment  that  we  find,  in  reformed  Buddhism,  such 
striking  analogies  with  Christianity." 

How.  improbable  is  this  theory !  Nay,  it  is  im- 
possible in  the  face  of  the  fact  that  the  Lamaistic 
ritual  dates  back  to  the  time  of  Fa-Hien.  Although 


THE   BASIC   CONCEPTS  OF   BUDDHISM.          169 

it  is  quite  probable  that  Nestorian  rituals,  which  is 
the  shape  in  which  Christianity  reached  Thibet  in  the 
seventh  century,  may  have  modified  the  Buddhist 
rituals  considerably,  we  cannot  deny  that  many  of 
the  most  salient  features  of  Thibetan  Lamaism,  such 
as  the  usage  of  rosaries,  incense  burning,  the  chanting 
of  psalmodies,  tonsures,  etc.,  are  unquestionably  older 
than  Christianity  itself.  Various  church  institutions, 
such  as  monkhood,  processions,  relic  worship,  etc., 
are  not  founded  on  the  New  Testament,  and  their 
origin  in  Christianity  cannot  be  explained  from  the 
life  history  of  Christ.  The  coincidences  between 
Buddhism  and  Christianity  are  the  more  puzzling 
as  they  include  so  many  trivial  externalities. 

The  idea  of  a  Buddhistic  origin  of  Christianity 
has  been  suggested  more  than  once ;  but  it  is  incum- 
bent upon  us  to  state  that  some  of  the  men  who 
must  be  regarded  as  the  most  competent  to  judge 
this  matter  are  either  extremely  reticent  or  scorn 
the  suggestion  as  quite  impossible.  While  it  is  true 
that  Arthur  Lillie  and  Eudolf  Seydel,  who  have 
done  most  to  make  the  theory  popular,  introduce 
many  vague  speculations,  we  cannot  regard  a  refuta- 
tion of  some  of  their  vagaries  as  sufficient  to  settle 
the  question.  No  argument  has  as  yet  been  offered 
to  dispose  of  the  hypothesis,  which  possesses,  to  say 
the  least,  a  great  probability  in  its  favor.  It  is  our 
intention  here  to  enumerate  some  of  the  most  salient 
facts  so  as  to  show  them  in  their  full  importance,  in 
the  hope  that  specialists  will  give  us  more  light  on 
the  subject.  We  repeat  the  motto  which  Albrecht 


170      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

Weber  inscribed  upon  the  title  page  of  his  Indische 

Literaturgeschichte : 

"  Nil  desperari ! 

Auch  hier  wird  es  tagen." 

The  agreement  of  the  ethical  spirit  of  both  relig- 
ions, Buddhism  and  Christianity,  appears  the  more 
striking  from  our  being  confronted  with  an  obvious 
difference  between  their  dogmatologies.  Christians 
believe  in  God,  soul,  and  immortality,  while  Bud- 
dhists aspire  to  reach  Nirvana.  They  have  no  such 
terms  as  God  and  soul.  On  the  contrary,  they  re- 
ject the  ideas  of  a  personal  Creator  of  the  world 
and  of  an  indissoluble  soul-unit,  an  atman,  or  ego- 
entity  in  man,  and  thus  they  are  decried  by  Chris- 
tians as  atheists  and  deniers  of  the  existence  of  the 
soul.  Having  explained  in  a  previous  article  that 
Buddhism  is  not  negative,  that  its  Nirvana  is  neither 
more  nor  less  positive  than  the  Christian  heaven, 
and  that  Buddha  only  rejects  the  gratuitous  assump- 
tion of  a  metaphysical  soul-agent  behind  the  soul, 
not  the  existence  of  the  soul  itself,  we  shall  now 
review  the  most  obvious  similarities  and  dissimilar- 
ities of  Buddhism  and  Christianity  ;  and  we  come  to 
the  conclusion  that,  supposing  no  historical  connec- 
tion exists  between  the  two  faiths,  their  agreement  must 
be  regarded  as  very  remarkable  /  for  in  that  case  we 
must  recognize  the  fact  that  both  Buddhists  and 
Christians,  facing  the  same  problems  of  life,  solve 
them  in  a  similar  spirit  although  using  different 
modes  of  expression.  It  would  go  far  to  prove  that 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  171 

the  basic  truths  of  both  religions  are  deeply  rooted  in 
the  nature  of  things  and  cannot  be  supposed  (as  is 
the  theory  of  supernaturalistic  dualism)  to  stand  in 
contradiction  to  the  cosmic  order  of  the  world  or  to 
the  laws  according  to  which  social  institutions 
develop. 

BUDDHA    AND     CHRIST. 

Let  us  briefly  recapitulate  the  similarities  that 
obtain  between  Buddhism  and  Christianity. 

As  St.  John  prepared  the  way  for  Christ,  so 
Sumedha  is  anxious  to  be  of  assistance  in  clearing 
the  path  for  Buddha.  The  people  tell  him :  * 

A  mighty  Buddha  has  appeared, 

A  Conqueror,  Lord  of  all  the  world, 

Whose  name  is  Dipamkara. 

For  him  is  being  cleared  the  way, 

The  path,  the  track  to  travel  on.— Verse  51. 

Sumedha  replied : 

' '  For  a  Buddha  do  ye  clear  the  road  ? 
Then,  pray,  grant  also  me  a  place  ! 
I,  too,  will  help  to  clear  the  way, 
The  path,  the  track  to  travel  on." 

As  according  to  Isaiah  "  every  valley  shall  be  ex- 
alted and  every  mountain  and  hill  shall  be  made 
low  "  at  the  coming  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  (Isaiah, 
xl,  3-5),  so  we  read  in  the  Sumangala  Vilasini  (Bud- 
dhagosa's  Commentary  on  the  Digha  Nikaya)  that 

*  Introduction  to  the  Jatakas.  See  H.  C.  Warren's  Bud- 
dhism in  Translations,  p.  12. 


172      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

where  the  Buddha  walks,  "  elevations  of  ground  de- 
press themselves  and  depressions  elevate  themselves  ; 
wherever  he  places  his  foot,  the  ground  is  even  and 
pleasant  to  walk  upon." — (H.  C.  Warren,  Buddhism 
in  Translations,  p.  92.) 

According  to  the  sacred  legends,  Buddha,  like 
Christ,  was  of  royal,  not  of  priestly,  lineage ;  and  his 
life  while  he  was  still  a  babe  was  jeopardized  on 
account  of  the  transcendent  glory  of  his  future. 
The  chapter  entitled  "  The  Fear  of  Bimbisara,"  * 
contains  a  parallel  to  the  story  of  Herod's  massacre 
of  the  infants  in  Bethlehem.  The  state  ministers  of 
Maghada  make  inquiry  if  there  be  any  one  capable 
of  depriving  the  king  of  his  regal  power.  Two  of 
their  messengers  find  among  the  Shaky as  an  infant 
newly  born,  the  first  begotten  of  his  mother,  who 
would  either  become  a  universal  monarch  or  a  Bud- 
dha. On  their  return  they  exhort  the  king  "  to  raise 
an  army  and  destroy  the  child,  lest  he  should  over- 
turn the  empire  of  the  king."  But  Bimbisara  (unlike 
Herod  of  the  New  Testament)  refuses  to  commit  the 
crime.  The  Christian  story  of  the  massacre  of  chil- 
dren is  probably  derived  from  the  older  Brahmanical 
legend  of  Krishna,  who  is  persecuted  as  an  infant 
by  the  tyrant  of  Madura.  The  latter,  unable  to 
find  the  boy,  ordains  the  massacre  of  all  the  chil- 
dren of  male  sex  born  during  the  night  of  Krishna's 
birth. 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  led  a  life  of  poverty. 
Both  wandered  about  without  a  home,  without  a 

*  Beal,  Romantic  History  of  Buddha,  pp.  103-104. 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  173 

family,  without  property.  They  lived  like  the  lilies 
of  the  field,  and  preached  to  all  people,  to  rich  and 
poor  alike,  without  distinction  of  class,  the  gospel  of 
the  deliverance  from  evil. 

Buddha  is  called  Dharma-raja,  the  king  of  truth, 
and  Christ  before  Pilate  repudiates  the  idea  that  his 
kingdom  is  of  this  world.  He  is  frequently  repre- 
sented by  Christians  as  the  King  of  Truth.  Buddha 
is  called  Shakya-simha,  the  lion  of  the  Shakya,  while 
Christ  is  the  lion  of  Judah.  Buddha  charges  his 
disciples  to  carry  the  message  of  the  glorious  doc- 
trine everywhere,  saying  "  desetha,  bhikkhave  kal- 
yano  dhammo,"  i.  e.,  "  Expound,  O  Bhikkhus,  the 
happy  truth."  The  word  ';  Kalyano  "  is  translated 
in  Chalmers'  dictionary  by  "  fortunate,  blest,  happy  ; 
beautiful,  charming,  pleasant ;  good,  virtuous,"  and 
if  Italy ano  dhammo  had  to  be  rendered  into  Greek, 
we  would  consider  the  term  euaj^^wv  as  a  most  ap- 
propriate translation.  There  is  no  essential  differ- 
ence between  the  English  "'  gospel,"  i.  e.  good  spell, 
and  the  Pali  kalydno  dhammo,  i.  e.,  the  good  doc- 
trine. 

The  same  story  which  is  told  of  Mary  in  the 
Apocryphal  gospel  of  the  Infancy  of  Mary  (Chap.  6) 
is  told  of  Buddha  in  the  Jataka  (Warren,  Buddh.  in 
Trans.,  p.  47).  Both  are  reported  to  have  walked 
soon  after  their  birth,  while  still  helpless  babies,  to 
the  astonishment  of  their  parents  and  other  specta- 
tors. Only  there  is  this  addition,  that  the  Buddha 
baby  also  speaks  and  announces  his  greatness  in  the 
words  :  "  The  chief  am  I  of  all  the  world.". 


174      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

How  strangely  Christian  are  the  injunctions  so 
frequently  found  in  Buddhist  scriptures,  to  have 
faith  and  to  make  use  of  the  time  of  grace.  We 
read,  for  instance,  in  the  Jataka :  * 

If  in  this  present  time  of  grace, 
You  do  not  reach  the  happy  state 
Long  will  you  suffer  deep  remorse. 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ,  according  to  the  canon- 
ical books  of  their  respective  religions  were  hailed 
soon  after  their  birth,  as  the  saviours  of  the  world,  by 
celestial  spirits,  by  a  religious  prophet,  and  by  sages. 
Devas,  like  the  angels  in  the  Christian  Gospel,  sing 
hymns.  Asita  is  the  Buddhist  Simeon  ;  the  Naga- 
rajas  are  the  Magi.  Aged  women  are  also  mentioned, 
who,  like  Anna,  bless  the  baby.f 

We  read  in  the  Tibetan  Life  of  Buddha :  $ 

"  It  was  the  habit  of  the  Qakyas  to  make  all  new-born  child- 
ren bow  down  at  the  feet  of  a  statue  of  the  yaksha  Qakyavar- 
dana  ;  so  the  king  took  the  young  child  to  the  temple,  but  the 
yaksha  bowed  down  at  his  feet.  .  .  .  When  the  king  saw 
the  yaksha  bow  at  the  child's  feet  he  exclaimed,  '  He  is  the 
god  of  gods  ! '  and  the  child  was  therefore  called  Devatideva." 


*  Buddhist  Birth  Stories.  Translated  by  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids, 
p.  157. 

fSee  Ashvaghosha's  Life  of  Buddha,  verses  39-40.—  Sacred 
Books  of  the  East,  (afterwards  cited  as  S.  B.  of  E.)  vol.  xix, 
pp.  1-20. 

t  The  Life  of  Buddha  and  the  Early  History  of  His  Order, 
Derived  from  Tibetan  Works  in  the  Bkah-Hgyur,  Bstan-Hgyur, 
translated  by  W.  Woodville  Rockhill,  p.  17.  See  also  S.  Beal, 
Romantic  History  of  BuddJut,  p.  52. 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  175 

The  apocryphal  Gospel  of  Pseudo-Matthew  con- 
tains a  similar  passage  :  * 

"  Now  it  came  to  pass  that  when  the  most  blessed  Mary, 
with  her  little  infant,  had  entered  the  temple,  all  the  idols 
were  prostrate  on  the  earth,  so  that  they  all  lay  upon  their 
faces  wholly  shattered  and  broken." 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  excelled  their  teachers. 
Both  were  greeted  by  a  woman  who  was  delighted 
with  their  personal  beauty.  The  "  noble  virgin  Kisa 
Gotami "  bursts  forth  into  the  song  : 

"  Blessed  indeed  is  the  mother. 
Blessed  indeed  is  the  father, 
Blessed  indeed  is  the  wife, 
Who  owns  this  lord  so  glorious." 

—Birth  Stories,  p.  80. 

This  reminds  one  of  the  incident  mentioned  in 
Luke  xi,  27 : 

"  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  he  spake  these  things,  a  certain 
woman  of  the  company  lifted  up  her  voice,  and  said  unto  him, 
Blessed  is  the  womb  that  bare  thee,  and  the  paps  which  thou 
hast  sucked." 

The  word  Nibbuta,  i.  e.  "  blessed,  happy,  peace," 
reminds  Buddha  of  NiHbuti,  i.  e.,  Nibbana.^  He 
says: 

"  By  what  can  every  heart  attain  to  lasting  happiness  and 
peace! 


*  The  Apocryphal  Gospels,  tr.  by  B.  Harris  Cowper,  4th  ed., 
p.  63.     See  also  The  Arabic  Gospel  of  the  Infancy,  ibid.,  p.  178. 
f  Birth  Stories,  p.  80,  and  Spence  Hardy,  Manual,  p.  160. 


176      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

"  And  to  him  whose  mind  was  estranged  from  sin  the  an- 
swer came.  '  When  the  fire  of  lust  is  gone  out  then  peace  is 
gained  ;  when  the  fires  of  hatred  and  delusion  are  gone  out, 
then  peace  is  gained  ;  when  the  troubles  of  mind,  arising  from 
pride,  credulity,  and  all  other  sins,  have  ceased,  then  peace  is 
gained  ! '  Sweet  is  the  lesson  this  singer  makes  me  hear,  for 
the  Nirvana  of  Peace  is  that  which  I  have  been  trying  to  find 
out.  This  very  day  I  will  break  away  from  household  cares  ! 
I  will  renounce  the  world  !  I  will  follow  only  after  the  Nirvana 
itself ! " 

In  a  similar  spirit  Christ  replies  (Luke  xi.  28) : 

"Yea,  rather  blessed  are  they  that  hear  the  word  of  God, 
and  keep  it.'' 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  were  tempted  by  the 
Evil  One.* 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  confessed  their  mission 
to  be  the  establishing  on  earth  of  a  kingdom  of 
righteousness ;  f  they  sent  out  their  disciples  to 
preach  the  gospel.  Said  Buddha : 

"  Go  ye  now,  O  Bhikkhus,  and  wander,  for  the  gain  of  the 
many,  for  the  welfare  of  the  many,  out  of  compassion  for  the 
world,  for  the  good,  for  the  gain,  and  for  the  welfare  of  gods  and 
men.  Let  not  two  of  you  go  the  same  way.  Preach,  O  Bhikkhus. 
the  doctrine  which  is  glorious  in  the  beginning,  glorious  in  the 


*  Compare  Ashvaghosha's  Life  of  Buddha,  chapter  xiii,  "  De- 
feats of  Mara,  S.  B.  of  E.,  vol.  xix,  p.  147,  with  Luke  iv.  2, 
Matth.  iv.  1-7,  i.  13. 

f See  the  Dhamma-chakTca-ppavattana-Sutta, — viz.,  on  "The 
Foundation  of  the  Kingdom  of  Righteousness," — S.  B.  of  E., 
vol.  xi.  p.  146,  and  Bigandet,  p.  125. 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  177 

middle,  glorious  in  the  end,  in  the  spirit  and  in  the  letter ; 
proclaim  a  consummate,  perfect,  and  pure  life  of  holiness. 
There  are  beings  whose  mental  eyes  are  covered  by  scarcely 
any  dust,  but  if  the  doctrine  is  not  preached  to  them,  they 
eannot  attain  salvation.  They  will  understand  the  doctrine. 
And  I  will  go  also,  O  Bhikkhus,  to  Uruvela,  to  Senaninigama, 
in  order  to  preach  the  doctrine."  * 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  refused  to  find  recogni- 
tion by  pandering  to  the  superstitions  of  those  who 
seek  for  signs;  f  Buddha  positively  forbade  miracles.:}: 
And  yet  to  both  innumerable  miracles  were  attrib- 
uted. 

Of  both  we  read  that  they  walked  on  the  water. 
The  origin  of  the  Buddhist  legend  can  be  traced  to 
the  allegorical  expression  of  crossing  the  stream  of 
worldliness  (samsara)  and  reaching  the  other  side, 
which  is  the  shore  of  celestial  rest  (Nirvana).  There 
is  no  such  spiritual  meaning  in  Christianity,  or,  if 
there  was  one,  the  metaphor  has  been  obliterated. 

As  St.  Peter  by  the  strength  of  his  faith  crossed 
the  waters  of  Lake  Galilee,  so  we  read  in  the  Jataka  § 
that  one  of  Buddha's  disciples  accomplished  the 
same  feat. 

*  See  Mahdvagga  i,  ii,  p.  112,  S.  B.  E.,  vol.  xiii.  ;  compare 
also  Ashvaghosha's  Life  of  Buddha,  p.  183,  with  Mark  iii,  14, 
and  Luke  ix.  2. 

f  See  Lukexi.  16,  and  passim. 

j  See  W.  W.  Rockhill's  Life  of  Buddha,  pp.  68-69. 

§  The  Jataka  translated  from  the  Pali  by  various  hands 
under  the  editorship  of  E.  B.  Cowell,  No.  190,  vol.  ii,  p.  77. 
Similar  stories  are  frequently  met  with  in  Buddhist  literature. 
See,  for  instance,  the  Chinese  edition  of  Buddhaghosha's  Par- 
ables, translated  by  Samuel  Beal,  Boston,  1878. 
12 


178      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN  CRITICS. 

The  signs  of  the  appearance  of  a  Christ  are  the 
same  as  the  signs  of  the  birth  of  Buddha.  We  read 
in  the  Jataka  :  * 

"  And  the  Thirty-two  prognostics  appeared,  as  follows:  an 
immeasurable  light  spread  through  ten  thousand  worlds  ;  the 
blind  recovered  their  sight,  as  if  from  desire  to  see  this  his 
glory  ;  the  deaf  received  their  hearing  ;  the  dumb  talked  ;  the 
hunchbacked  became  straight  of  body ;  the  lame  recovered 
the  power  to  walk  ;  all  those  in  bonds  were  freed  from  their 
bonds  and  chains  ;  the  fires  went  out  in  all  the  hells." 

How  similar  is  Christ's  reply  to  the  disciples  of 
St.  John  the  Baptist ! 

At  a  marriage-feast  both  Buddha  and  Christ 
miraculously  helped  the  host  to  entertain  his  guests. 
In  Buddha's  presence,  as  we  are  told  in  the  story  of 
the  marriage-feast  at  Jambunada,f  a  small  supply  of 
food  proves  over  -  and  over  sufficient  for  a  great 
number  of  guests.  The  idea  of  turning  water  into 
wine,  at  the  marriage  at  Cana,:}:  is  un-Buddhistic. 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  tried  asceticism  for  a 
time,  and  carried  their  fasts  to  the  extreme.  We 
read : 

"  Each  day  eating  one  hemp  grain,  his  bodily  form  shrunken 
and  attenuated,  seeking  how  to  cross  (the  sea  of)  birth  and 
death,  exercising  himself  still  deeper  and  advancing  further." 
(Ashvaghosha's  Life  of  Buddha,  verse  1007.) 

But  both  gave  up  these  methods  of  gaining  holi- 
ness by  self -mortification  for  a  middle  way.§  Both 

*  Warren,  p.  44. 

t  Fu  Pen  Hing  Tsi  King,  translated  by  Beal. 

$  John'ii.  1,  et  seq. 

§  Dhammapada,  verse  227 :  Chinese  version  of  the  Dham- 
mapada,  translated  by  Beal,  p.  122. 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  179 

were  in  consequence  of  it  suspected  by  former  be- 
lievers of  flagging  in  religious  zeal.  * 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  were  powerful  preachers, 
fond  of  parables,  and  concentrating  their  teachings 
in  pithy  aphorisms,  which  were  both  impressive  and 
easily  remembered.  Both  were  keen  thinkers,  and 
invincible  in  controversies,  as  a  rule,  bringing  the 
debate  to  a  climax  by  presenting  a  dilemma,  and 
always  pressing  the  moral  application  of  their  the- 
ories. Both  exercised  an  extraordinary  influence ; 
they  looked  into  the  hearts  of  men  and  swayed  their 
minds  through  purity  of  motive  and  the  authorita- 
tive earnestness  of  their  personality.  Both  objected 
to  the  traditional  method  of  clinging  to  the  letter  of 
religious  belief  which  is  satisfied  with  rituals  and 
prayers,  and  both  substituted  for  it  the  spirit  of 
religious  devotion  and  moral  conduct,  f  Both  loved 
to  express  their  sentiments  in  paradoxes,  such  as, 
"  By  giving  away  we  gain ;  by  losing  our  soul  we 
preserve  it ;  by  non-resistance  we  conquer,"  and  both 
spoke  in  parables.:}:  Many  subjects  of  their  parables 
are  the  same ;  as  such  we  mention  the  sower  §  and 


*  Compare  Ashvaghosha's  Life  of  Buddha,  verses  1024.  and 
1222-1224,  with  Luke  vii,  19,  Matth.  xi,  3. 

f  As  an  instance  of  Buddha's  method  of  spiritualizing  reli- 
gious rites  see  the  Sigalovdda  Sutta  in  Sept  Suttas  Pdlis,  by 
M.  P.  Grimblot  (Paris),  p.  311. 

\  "  '  Powerful  in  making  comparisons,'  is  one  of  Buddha's 
characteristic  names. " — Beal,  foot-note  to  Ashvaghosha's  Life 
of  Buddha,  verse  1915,  S.  B.  of  E.,  xix,  p.  280. 

§  Sutta  Nipata,  p.  11-15,  S.  B.  of  E.,  Second  Part. 


180      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

the  lost  son  ;  *  the  worldly  fool  who  builds  a  large  re- 
sidence with  store-rooms,  but  dies  suddenly  ;f  the  com- 
parison of  good  deeds  to  seeds  sown  on  good  and  bad 
soil,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  people,  illustrating 
the  truth  that  in  bad  people  the  passions  choke  the 
growth  of  merit.  Buddha  calls  the  Brahmans,  and 
Christ  the  Pharisees,  "  blind  leaders  of  the  blind."  ^ 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  show  an  unexpected 
graciousness  toward  a  woman  sinner  ;§  and  a  Budd- 
hist disciple  had  an  encounter  with  a  woman  at  a 
well  analogous  to  that  of  Christ  in  Samaria.  | 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  were,like  Krishna,^[trans- 
figured  shortly  before  death,**  and  above  all,  both 
inculcated  the  utter  extinction  of  desire,  lust,  and 
hate  in  their  very  germ,  so  as  to  forbid  all  assertion 
of  self,  even  the  resistance  to  evil,  and  both  demand 
the  practice  of  love  of  enemies,  ff 

*  Saddharmapundarika  iv. 

f  Beal,  Translation  of  Chinese  Dhammapada,  p.  77. 

\  Compare  Matthew  xv.  14,  with  Tevigga  Sutta,  i.  15,  and 
Lalita  Vistara,  p.  179.  See  also  Deal's  Romantic  History  of 
Buddha,  p.  106,  where  the  phrase  occurs,  "  Like  a  blind  man 
who  undertakes  to  lead  the  blind." 

§  See  the  story  of  Ambapali  in  Mahdvagga  vi.  30.  The 
courtesan  Ambapali  is  called  "  Lady  Amra "  in  the  Chinese 
version  of  Ashvaghosha's  Life  of  Buddha,  p.  255-256. 

||  Compare  John  v.  et  seq.,  with  Burnouf's  Introduction, 
p.  205. 

«[  The  transfiguration  of  Krishna  serves  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  the  faith  of  his  followers  in  the  presence  of 
danger.  See  Jacolliot,  The  Bible  in  India,  p.  306. 

**  Compare  Matthew  xvii.  2,  and  Mark  ix.  2,  with  Mahapari- 
nibbdna  Sutta  iv.  47,  52. 

ft  Compare  Dhammapada,  5,  "Hatred  ceases  by  love,"  and 


BUDDHISM    AND   CHRISTIANITY.  181 

SIMILARITIES    IN    TEACHING. 

There  are,  in  addition,  numerous  coincidences  in 
their  utterances,  so  that  many,  of  -the  sayings  of 
Christ  and  Buddha  appear  like  two  different  reports 
of  the  same  speech.  Thus  we  read  in  the  Sutra  of 
Forty -two  Sections,  10  : 

"  It  is  difficult  for  the  rich  and  noble  to  be  religious." 

And  Christ  said  (Matthew  xix.  24,  Mark  x.  25,  and 
Luke  xviii.  25) : 

"  And  again  I  say  unto  you,  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to  go 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle,  than  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  God." 

Christ  says :  "  Love  your  enemies,"  and  we  read  in 
the  Dhammapada : 

Hatred  does  not  cease  by  hatred,  hatred  ceases  by  love  only. 
This  is  an  old  rule." 

The  Dharma  is  frequently  compared  to  living 
waters,  as  in  John  iv,  14,  vii,  38,  Eev.  xxi,  6,  xxii,  17, 
and  to  a  pearl,  or  a  jewel,  as  in  Matthew  xiii,  45-46, 
while  Nirvana  is  described  as  a  city  of  peace  and 
an  island  of  jewels,*  similarly  as  the  new  Jerusalem. 

Yashas,  the  noble  youth  of  Benares,f  visits  Buddha 
in  the  night,  like  Nicodemus ;  £  but  if  Nicodemus 

many  other  passages,   with  Matthew    v.   44,    "Love    your 
enemies." 

*  See  Dhammapada,  p.  181. 

f  Ashvaghosha's  Life  of  Buddha,  p.  180,  Mahdvagga,  i.  7. 
See  John  iii.  2. 


182      BUDDHISM  AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

had  been  a  Brahman,  he  would  not  have  been  mys- 
tified by  Christ's  proposition  of  the  necessity  of  a 
spiritual  rebirth  ;  he  would  have  understood  the  ex- 
pression. The  term  "  twice  born  "  or  "  reborn  "  is 
still  among  Buddhists  a  title  of  honor  given  to 
priests  and  other  men  of  distinction. 

The  coming  of  the  Tathagata  (Buddha)  is  likened 
to  the  wind.  TVe  read  in  The  Questions  of  King 
Milinda,  page  148 : 

"  As  the  great  and  mighty  wind  which  blew,  even  so,  great 
king,  has  the  Blessed  One  blown  over  the  ten  thousand  world- 
systems  with  the  wind  of  his  love,  so  cool,  so  sweet,  so  calm, 
so  delicate.'' 

How  similar,  although  less  clear,  is  the  passage  in 
John  iii.  8 : 

"  The  wind  bloweth  where  it  listeth,  and  thou  hearest  the 
sound  thereof,  but  canst  not  tell  whence  it  cometh,  and 
whither  it  goeth  :  so  is  every  one  that  is  born  of  the  Spirit. " 

The  Dharma  (viz.,  religion)  is  said  to  be  like  the 
salt  of  the  ocean,  "  one  in  taste  throughout,  which  is 
the  taste  of  salvation."  This  reminds  us  of  Jesus  say- 
ing that  his  disciples  are  the  salt  of  the  earth  ;  *  and 
the  exhortation  is  made  by  both  Buddha  and  Christ 
to  lay  up  treasures  that  are  incorruptible  and  inac- 
cessible to  thieves.f 

*  Questions  of  King  Milinda,  iii.  7,  15,  and  Chullavagga  ix. 
1,  4,  which  compare  with  Matthew  v.  13. 

t  Compare  Nidhikandasutta,  the  treasure  chapter,  where  we 
read  of  "  A  treasure  that  no  wrong  of  others  and  no  thief  can 
steal,"  with  Matthew  vi.  20. 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  183 

Giving  is  praised  in  preference  to  receiving.  In 
Ashvaghosha's  Life  of  Buddha,  1516-1517,  we  read  : 

"  Giving  away  our  food,  we  get  more  strength  ;  giving  away 
our  clothes,  we  get  more  beauty."  (S.  B.  E.,  Vol.  XIX.,  p.  215.) 

In  The  Questions  of  King  Milinda  we  find  among 
the  discussions  concerning  apparent  contradictions 
explained  by  Nagasema,  that  "  the  Dharma  of  the 
Tathagata  shines  forth  when  displayed"  (p.  264), 
which  is  contrasted  with  the  injunction,  "  Do  not  let 
the  Dharma  ....  fall  into  the  hands  of  those  un- 
versed with  it  "  (page  266).  Both  passages  find  their 
parallels  in  the  Christian  Gospel,  the  former  in  Mat- 
thew v.  16,  "Let  your  light  shine  before  men,"  and 
the  latter  in  Matthew  vii.  6,  "  Do  not  cast  your 
pearls  before  swine." 

Buddha  says  (in  the  Sutra  of  Forty-two  Sections, 
28)  "  Guard  against  looking  on  a  woman,"  and  (in 
Buddhaghosha's  Parables,  p.  153)  he  comments  upon 
the  law  "  commit  no  adultery,"  that  it  "  is  broken 
by  even  looking  at  the  wife  of  another  with  a  lustful 
mind."  Christ  expresses  the  same  idea  in  almost 
the  same  words,  saying :  "  Whosoever  looketh  on  a 
woman  to  lust  after  her,  has  committed  adultery  with 
her  already  in  his  heart."  (Matthew  v.  28.) 

The  sentence,  "  If  thy  right  eye  offend  thee  pluck 
it  out,"  (Matthew  v.  29),  finds  a  parallel  in  the  words : 

"  Better  far  with  red-hot  iron  pins  bore  out  both  your  eyes, 
than  encourage  in  yourself  lustful  thoughts."  (Ashvaghosha's 
Life  of  Buddha,  1762-1763.) 


184      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

"  The  armor  of  God  "  is  described  by  St.  Paul 
(Eph.  vi.  13-17) : 

"  Wherefore,  take  unto  you  the  whole  armor  of  God,  that  ye 
may  be  able  to  withstand  in  the  evil  day,  and  having  done  all, 
to  stand. 

"Stand,  therefore, having  your  loins  girt  about  with  truth, 
and  having  on  the  breastplate  of  righteousness  ; 

"  And  your  feet  shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of 
peace ; 

"Above  all,  taking  the  shield  of  faith,  wherewith  ye  shall 
be  able  to  quench  all  the  fiery  darts  of  the  wicked. 

"  And  take  the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the  sword  of  the 
Spirit,  which  is  the  word  of  God." 

This  reminds  us  of  Ashvaghosha's  Life  of  Buddha, 
1761-1702 : 

"  Take,  then,  the  bow  of  earnest  perseverance,  and  the  sharp 
arrow-points  of  wisdom. 

"Cover  your  head  with  the  helmet  of  right  thought,  and 
fight  with  fixed  resolve  against  the  five  desires." 

In  the  Lalita  Vistara  (page  122)  we  read  of  the 
"  World  "  that "  it  is  like  a  city  of  sand.  Its  founda- 
tions cannot  endure,"  which  reminds  us  of  Matthew 
vii.  26. 

Matthew  xxiv.  35 :  "  My  words  shall  not  pass 
away,"  finds  a  parallel  in  Buddhist  Birth  Stories, 
p.  18 :  "  The  word  of  the  glorious  Buddhas  is  sure 
and  everlasting." 

Both  Buddha  and  Christ  point  out  to  their  ad- 
herents- the  good  example  of  worldly  people. 
Buddha  says,  when  rebuking  his  disciples  for  im- 
proper behavior : 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  185 

"Even  the  laymen,  O  bhikkhus  ....  will  be  respectful, 
affectionate,  hospitable  to  their  teachers.  Do  you,  therefore, 
O  bhikkhus,  so  let  your  light  shine  forth  that  you  having  left 
the  world  ....  may  be  respectful,  affectionate,  hospitable 
to  your  teachers,"  etc.  (Mahdvagga  V.  4,  2,  xvii.  p.  18.) 

And  Christ  says : 

"If  ye  love  them  which  love  you,  what  reward  have  ye? 
Do  not  even  the  publicans  the  same  ?  And  if  ye  salute  your 
brethren  only,  what  do  ye  more  than  others  ?  Do  not  even 
the  publicans  so  ?  "  (Matth.  v.  46-47.) 

Christ  complains,  in  Matth.  xi.  16-19,  of  the 
childish  nature  of  the  people  whom  no  one  can 
satisfy,  neither  John  the  Baptist  who  did  not  eat 
and  drink  nor  the  Son  of  man  who  did  eat  and  drink. 
In  the  same  spirit  Buddha  says  : 

"They  blame  the  man  of  many  words,  they  blame  the  pa- 
tient and  quiet  man,  they  also  blame  the  man  who  seeks  the 
happy  medium."  (See  Deal's  Translation  of  the  Chinese 
Dhammapada,  sect.  xxv.  p.  122.  Compare  Pali  Dhamma- 
pada,  v.  227). 

It  is  a  curious  coincidence  that  Christ,  when  speak- 
ing of  the  signs  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man, 
mentions  "  the  tig  tree's  putting  forth  leaves  "  (Matt. 
xxiv.  32),  while  we  read  in  the  Saddharmctrpunda- 
rika,  ii.  134-136,  S.  B.  of  E.,  p.  58 : 

"At  certain  times  and  at  certain  places,  somehow  do  leaders 

appear  in  the  world just  as  the  blossom  of  the  glomer- 

ous  fig-tree  is  rare,  all  so  wonderful,  and  far  more  wonderful 
is  the  law  I  proclaim." 

As  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man,  so  his  parting 


186      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

from  life  is  expressed  in  words  which  present  a  cer- 
tain similarity  to  Buddhistic  passages.     Christ  says : 

"Ye  shall  not  see  me"  (St.  John.  xvi.  16), 
and  again  (Matt.  xxiv.  23.) 

"  If  any  man  shall  say  unto  you,  Lo,  here  is  Christ,  or  there, 
believe  it  not." 

The  Brahmajdla  Sutta  (translated  by  Gogerly  in 
Sept  Suttas  Palis,  p.  59)  although  in  a  different 
sense  also  speaks  of  Buddha  that  he  shall  not  be 
seen  again.  We  read : 

"  That  which  binds  the  teacher  to  existence  is  cut  off,  but 
his  body  still  remains.  While  his  body  still  remains  he  will 
be  seen  by  gods  and  man,  but  after  the  termination  of  life, 
upon  the  dissolution  of  the  body,  neither  gods  nor  men  will 
see  him."  (P.  iii.) 

Self-sacrifice  is  the  lesson  of  Christ's  death ;  the 
same  lesson  is  taught  by  Buddha  in  one  of  the  Sam- 
kaapala  birth  stories,  wnere  he  offers  himself  for 
food  to  a  hungry  Brahman.  Buddha  says : 

"  They  pierced  me  through  with  pointed  sticks, 
They  hacked  me  with  their  hunting  knives, 
Yet  'gainst  these  Bhojans  raged  I  not, 
But  kept  the  precepts  perfectly."* 

A  similar  passage  occurs  in  the  Greater  Sutasoma 
Birth-story,  where  Buddha  says : 

"  I  kept  the  promise  I  had  made 
And  gave  my  life  in  sacrifice." 


>  Warren,  p.  35. 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  187 

At  the  close  of  his  career  Buddha  promised  that, 
when  needed,  another  Buddha  would  arise  who  will 
be  known  as  Maitreya,  he  whose  name  is  kindness, 
and  in  a  similar  mood  Christ  prophesies  the  coming 
of  the  Comforter,  that  will  guide  them  into  all  truth 
and  complete  his  work. 

While  the  resemblances  between  Christ  and  Bud- 
dha are  exceedingly  great,  there  is  a  passage  in  the 
Epistle  of  St.  James  which  has  puzzled  all  transla- 
tors, because  it  contains  a  Buddhist  term  which 
was  no  longer  understood  among  Christians.  The 
endless  circuit  of  becoming  is  compared  to  a  wheel, 
in  the  hands  of  Mara,  the  Evil  One,  which  is  fre- 
quently painted  by  Buddhist  artists.  St.  James 
speaks  of  the  tongue  as  a  fire,  saying :  "  Behold  how 
great  matter  a  little  fire  kindleth.  He  continues : 

ovruf  r/y'XuaGa  Ka^lararai  kv  roiq  /M^SGIV  Jjftui',  %  ffiriAovaa  bhov  TO  GUJM 
Kai  <j>^oyi£ovaa  rbv  Tpo%bv  rfjq  yevtaeuf,  KOI  ^Myi^ofiivrj  VTTO  TTJ<;  yeiwrjq. 

[Thus  the  tongue  that  defileth  the  whole  body  standeth 
among  our  limbs,  and  it  sets  on  fire  the  wheel  of  becoming 
and  is  set  on  fire  by  hell.] 

The  Latin  version  retains  the  term  rota  nativi- 
tatis.  "  The  wheel  of  being  born,"  but  the  English 
version  of  King  James  replaces  the  term  by  "  course 
of  nature."  The  reappearance  of  this  peculiarly 
Buddhist  term  in  the  New  Testament  is  certainly 
most  startling  and  perplexing. 

CHRISTIAN   AND   BUDDHISTIC    SENTIMENTS. 

There  is  a  strange  agreement  between  Christian 
and  Buddhistic  sentiment  as  expressed  in  hymns  and 


188      BUDDHISM   AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

religious  poetry.  The  well-known  crusader's  song 
which,  it  is  said,  was  sung  by  Christian  warriors  on 
their  march  to  Palestine,  to  a  beautiful  rhythmic 
march-melody,  concludes  with  the  following  verse : 

"  Fair  is  the  moonshine, 
Fairer  the  sunlight 

Than  all  the  stars  of  the  heavenly  host. 
Jesus  shines  brighter, 
Jesus  shines  purer 
Than  all  the  angels  that  heaven  can  boast." 

How  much  does  this  resemble  the  following  verse 
in  the  Dhammapada  (verse  387) : 

"  The  sun  is  bright  by  day, 
The  moon  shines  bright  by  night, 
The  warrior  is  bright  in  his  armor, 
The  Brahmana  is  bright  in  his  meditation, 
But  Buddha,  the  awakened, 
Is  brightest  with  splendor  day  and  night."* 

There  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  that  the  crusa- 
der's hymn  is  an  echo  of  the  verse  of  the  Dhamma- 
pada. How  naturally  similar  sentiments  develop 
under  the  same  conditions  of  mind  may  be  learned 
from  the  following  poem  which  we  quote  from  "  The 
Ten  Theophanies,"  by  the  Kev.  William  M.  Baker. 
We  take  the  liberty  only  of  making  a  few  changes 
in  the  order  of  the  verses  and  replace  Christian 
terms  by  Buddhistic  expressions.  The  sentiment 
remains  unaltered  and  shows  how  thoroughly  the 
religious  literature  of  the  one  religion  can  be  utilized 

*  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  Vol.  X,  p.  89. 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  189 

for  the  other.  The  poem  which  may  be  entitled 
either  "  Lifting  the  Yeil  of  Maya  "  or  A  Glimpse  of 
Nirvana,"  reads  in  its  revised  version  as  follows: 

"  Melt,  oil  thou  film-flake,  faster, 

Rend,  thou  thin  gauze,  in  two, 
Eternity,*  overmaster, 

Break  in  effulgence  through  1 
I  know  how  very  nearly 

I  draw  unto  thy  realms. 
I  know  that  it  is  merely 

A  film  which  overwhelms 
These  eyes  from  rapturous  seeing, 

These  ears  from  rapturous  sound, 
This  self  from  Buddha-being, 

This  life  from  broken  bound. 
O  sacred  light,  overflow  thee  ! 

Bush  ceons  into  one, 
That  earth  and  heaven  may  know  the 

Eternal  rest  begun  ! " 

THE   MURDER   OF   PARENTS. 

Remarkable  as  these  parallels  are,  some  of  which 
are  apparently  incidental,  some  striking,  some  simply 
curious,  the  list  is  by  no  means  exhausted.!  Let  me 

*The  italics  indicate  the  changes  made.  Line  3  reads  in 
the  original  "Eternal  heaven,  o'ermaster";  line  11,  "This  self 
from  God-like  being";  line  13,  "day"  in  place  of  "  light";  and 
line  14,"st;ons"  (which  stands  for  the  Buddhist  term  "  kalpas  ") 
in  place  of  "Sabbaths." 

f  Rudolf  Seydel  calls  attention  to  a  curious  similarity  of 
sound  between  important  names,  such  as  Maya  and  Maria, 
Ananda  and  Johannes,  Sariputra  and  Peter,  Devadatta,  and 
Judas,  each  two  of  these  characters,  strange  to  say,  being  re- 
presentatives of  the  very  same  type  and  playing  the  same 
parts,  those  in  Buddha's,  these  in  Christ's  life.  But  we  have 


190      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

now  add  a  passage  in  which  the  Buddhist  version 
may  be  hoped  to  throw  light  upon  the  Christian 
narrative. 

Christ's  words,  ' '  The  children  shall  rise  up  against 
their  parents  and  cause  them  to  be  put  to  death," 
(Matt.  x.  21.  Cf.  also  Matt.  x.  34-36 ;  and  Luke  xii. 
51-53.)  have  startled  Christians  in  no  less  degree 
than  an  analogous  passage  in  the  Buddhist  canon  has 
the  Buddhists.  We  read  in  the  Dhammapada,  verse 
295: 

"A  true  Brahman  goes  scathless,  though  he  have  killed 
father  and  mother  and  two  holy  kings  and  an  eminent  man 


Says  the  translator  in  the  footnote  on  page  71 : 

"D' Alois  following  the  commentary  explains  mother  as 
lust,  father  as  pride,  the  two  valiant  kings  as  heretical  sys- 
tems, etc." 

And  Beal  quotes  in  the  Introduction  to  his  Trans- 
lation of  the  Chinese  Dhammapada  the  following 
Buddhistic  comment : 

"Is  not  love  (Tarihd)  which  covets  pleasure  more  and 
more,  and  so  produces  '  birth ' — is  not  this  the  mother  (mata) 
of  all?  And  is  not  'ignorance'  (avidyd)  the  father  (pitd)  of 
all?  To  destroy  these  two,  then,  is  to  slay  father  and 
mother.  And  again,  to  cut  off  and  destroy  those  ten  'Tcleshas ' 


to  add.  that  the  names  Miryam,  and  Simeon  Kephas,  the 
Hebrew  originals  of  Maria  and  Peter,  resemble  their  Bud- 
dhistic counterparts  very  little  and  exhibit  a  remarkable  in- 
stance of  an  incidental  resemblance  warning  us  not  to  take 
even  striking  coincidences  as  evidences  of  appropriation. 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  191 

(Ch.  shi)  which  like  the  rat  or  the  secret  poison,  work  in- 
visibly, and  to  get  rid  of  all  the  consequences  of  these  faults 
(i.  e.,  to  destroy  all  material  associations),  this  is  to  wound  a 
Rahat.  And  to  cause  offence  and  overthrow  a  church  or 
assembly,  what  is  this  but  to  separate  entirely  the  connexion 
of  the  five  skandhas  ?  ('  five  aggregates, ,'  which  is  the  same 
word  as  that  used  above  for  the  church).  And  again  to  draw 
the  blood  of  a  Buddha,  what  is  this  but  to  wound  and  get 
rid  of  the  seven-fold  body  by  the  three  methods  of  escape. 

And  in  order  to  explain  and  enforce  this  more  fully, 

the  World-honored  One  added  the  following  stanzas  : 

Lust,  or  carnal  desire,  this  is  the  mother, 
'  Ignorance,'  this  is  the  father, 
.  The  highest  point  of  knowledge,  this  is  Buddha, 
All  the  '  kleshas '  these  are  the  Rahats. 
The  five  skandhas,  these  are  the  priests, 
To  commit  the  five  unpardonable  sins 
Is  to  destroy  these  five 
And  yet  not  suffer  pains  of  hell." 

Christ's  startling  prediction  that  "the  children 
will  rise  against  their  parents  and  cause  them  to  be 
put  to  death "  bears  an  obvious  likeness  to  these 
Buddhistic  passages  and  will,  on  the  supposition  of 
an  historical  connexion  between  both  religions,  find, 
if  considered  in  the  light  of  the  above  quotation,  a 
natural  explanation. 

THE    DOCTRINE   OF   NON-KESISTANCE. 

In  pushing  their  doctrine  of  kindness  and  love  of 
enemies  to  the  utmost  extreme,  both  Buddha  and 
Christ  seem  to  have  had  but  little  regard  for  the 
ethics  of  struggle.  We  purposely  say  "  seem,"  for 
the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  is  one  of  many  para- 


192      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

doxes  which  admit  of  a  perfectly  satisfactory  ex- 
planation ;  it  has  been  interpreted  by  orthodox 
Christian  theologians  and  also  by  Buddhists  to  mean 
that  a  man's  disposition  of  heart  must  be  such  that 
he  does  not  defend  his  right  because  it  is  his,  but 
because  it  is  right;  that  selfishness  and  personal 
vanity  must  not  be  our  motives  of  action ;  and  that 
a  man  must  be  willing  to  give  up,  if  need  be,  not 
only  what  is  taken  from  him,  but  other  things  in 
addition.  Thus  we  are  told  by  Christian  exegetists, 
that  Christ  does  not  demand  of  us  to  give  up  the 
mantle  to  him  who  robs  us  of  our  coat,  for  Christ 
himself  defended  his  right  when  unjustly  beaten. 
Christ  himself  carried  on  a  bitter  warfare  against 
those  whom  he  called  hypocrites,  and  generations 
of  vipers.  He  showed  the  belligerent  spirit  of  his 
zeal  when  he  cast  out  those  who  bartered  in  the 
temple  and  held  pigeons  for  sale,  which  act  was 
probably  an  emphatic  protest  against  bloody  sacri- 
fices, so  extremely  offensive  to  the  Essene  brother- 
hood. And  Buddha,  too,  with  all  his  gentleness, 
was  himself  a  powerful,  although  always  kind- 
hearted,  controversialist ;  and  his  disciples  are  fre- 
quently compared  to  warriors  who  with  spiritual 
weapons  had  unflaggingly  and  zealously  to  struggle 
for  the  truth. 


THE  SANGHA  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

There  are  also  striking  resemblances  in  the  devel- 
opment of  the  Sangha,  or  Buddhist   brotherhood, 


BUDDHISM    AND    CHRISTIANITY.  193 

and  the  Church.  Universality  is  a  marked  feature 
of  both  religions.  Thus  Buddhism,  as  well  as  Chris- 
tianity, is  possessed  of  a  missionary  spirit ;  anxious 
to  let  everybody  partake  of  the  blessing  of  their 
religion,  they  sent  out  apostles  to  all  known  countries 
of  the  earth.  Councils  were  held  to  settle  disputes 
as  to  the  right  doctrine.  A  sacred  literature  origi- 
nated first  of  the  Master's  sayings,  with  incidental 
mentionings  of  the  occasions  on  which  they  were 
uttered ;  and  later  hagiographers  undertook  to  tell 
the  whole  story  of  his  life.  There  is  an  increasing 
tendency  perceptible  in  the  development  of  both 
Buddhistic  and  Christian  thought,  of  more  and 
more  exaggerating  the  marvellous  and  of  adding 
legendary  elements.  The  ancient  Buddhist  chaityas, 
or  assemblage  halls,  with  nave,  aisles,  and  apse, 
bear  a  close  resemblance  to  Christian  churches  ;  and 
the  Buddhist  wheel  reappears  as  the  rose  window 
above  the  main  entrance  of  cathedrals. 

There  were  monks  in  Buddhism  long  before 
Christianity  existed  ;  and  Buddhist  monks  wear  rough 
garments,  live  under  the  same,  or  almost  the  same, 
restrictions,  have  tonsures,  and  employ  rosaries. 
They  live  as  hermits  or  in  cloisters,  and  the  clergy 
of  Tibet  possess  a  hierarchy  with  institutions  which 
are  quite  analogous  to  that  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church.  They  have  processions,  they  baptize,*  they 
sprinkle  with  holy  water,  and  use  the  confessional. 

*  It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  or  not  baptism  was  established 
among  the  early  Buddhists  ;  if  so,  it  is  probable  that  the  cere- 
mony is  older  than  Buddhism.  We  find  bathing  in  the  Ganges 


194      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

There  are  analogies  even  of  sects  and  heresies. 
The  Doketistic  heresy  believed  that  Christ,  because 
he  was  God,  could  have  suffered  no  pain  ;  his  whole 
being  was  uncontaminated  with  material  existence, 
and  his  body  was  mere  appearance,  a  sham — hence 
the  name  of  the  sect  from  doxw,  to  seem.  This  view 
is  represented  in  the  apocryphal  "  Gospel  according 
to  St.  Peter,"  in  which  we  read  (verse  10) :  "  And 
they  brought  two  malefactors  and  crucified  the 
Lord  between  them  ;  but  he  kept  silence,  as  feeling 
no  pain."  Doketism  is  also  one  of  the  Buddhist 
heresies,  as  may  be  learned  from  a  passage  quoted 
from  the  Fo-pan-ni-pan-king,  an  expanded  render- 
ing of  the  Parinirvdna-Sutra,  translated  into 
Chinese  by  Dharmaraksha  (Sacred  Hooks  of  the 
East,  Vol.  XIX,  p.  365,^  seq.}.  The  Tathagata 
says  to  Chunda,  the  smith  : 

"  To  those  who  as  yet  have  no  knowledge  of  the  nature  of 
Buddha,  to  these  the  body  of  Tathagata  seefns  capable  of  suf- 
fering, liable  to  want  (but  to  others  it  is  not  so) ;  at  the  time 
when  Bodhisattva  received  the  offering  of  food  and  drink  (he 
was  supposed  to  have  eaten  the  food).  ...  so  now  having 
received  your  offering,  he  will  preach  the  law.  But  still,  as 
in  the  former  case  he  ate  not,  so  neither  does  he  eat  now." — 
Transl.  by  Samuel  Beal,  1.  c.,  p.  367. 

There  are  two  incidents  which  link  Buddhism  and 


mentioned  as  a  religious  rite  in  Ashvagosha's  Life  of  Buddlia, 
verses  164-165.  But  no  further  explanation  is  given  concern- 
ing it-  Was  it  an  ablution,  or  did  it  symbolize  the  crossing  of 
the  stream  of  samsara  ?  It  is  remarkable  that  St.  Paul  (I.  Cor. 
x.  1-4)  says  that  the  crossing  of  the  Red  Sea  was  the  baptism 
of  the  children  of  Israel. 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  195 

Christianity  together,  in  a  quite  peculiar  way.  On 
the  one  hand,  Buddha  has  been  received  among  the 
Christian  saints  under  the  name  of  St.  Josaphat,* 
so  that  in  this  respect  the  followers  of  Buddha  must 
appear  to  Christians  as  a  kind  of  a  Christian  sect, 
however  incomplete  their  dogmatic  Christianity  may 
be.  On  the  other  hand  Buddha  prophesied  that  the 
next  Buddha  after  him  would  be  Maitreya,  the 
Buddha  of  kindness,  and  without  doing  any  violence 
to  Buddha's  words,  this  prophecy  may  be  said  to  be 
fulfilled  in  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Thus  the  Christians 
may  be  said  to  be  Buddhists  that  worship  Maitreya 
under  the  name  of  Christ. 

THE   MAIN   DIFFERENCE. 

The  similarities  of  Christianity  and  Buddhism  are 
the  more  remarkable  as  among  the  dissimilarities 
there  is  one  which  exhibits  an  almost  irreconcilable 
contrast.  All  those  members  of  the  various  Chris- 
tian denominations  who  call  themselves  its  orthodox 
representatives,  regard  the  belief  in  a  personal  God 
(an  Ishvara)  as  the  foundation  of  their  religious  faith. 

*  Josaphat  is  a  corruption  of  Bodhisattva.  For  a  detailed 
account  of  the  Barlaam  and  Josaphat  literature  see  Rhys 
David's  Buddhist  Birth  Stories,  pp.  xxxvi,  et  seq.  Rhys  Davids 
says  on  p.  xli  :  "  It  was  Prof.  Max  Muller,  who  has  done  so 
much  to  infuse  the  glow  of  life  into  the  dry  bones  of  Oriental 
scholarship,  who  first  pointed  out  the  strange  fact — almost  in- 
credible, were  it  not  for  the  completeness  of  the  proof — that 
Gotama,  the  Buddha,  under  the  name  of  St.  Josaphat,  is  now 
officially  recognized  throughout  the  whole  of  Catholic  Chris- 
tendom as  a  Christian  saint  I " 


196      BUDDHISM   AND    ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

No  wonder  that  they  characterize  Buddha's  religion 
as  atheism,  denouncing  it  as  unsatisfactory,  or  even 
nihilistic,  and  vigorously  repudiate  any  kinship  which 
might  be  supposed  to  obtain  between  both  creeds. 

The  God-idea,  representing  the  ultimate  authority 
of  conduct,  is  so  fundamental  in  Christianity  that 
Christians  cannot  think  of  any  atheistic  religion ; 
they  actually  identify  religion  with  belief  in  God 
and,  indeed,  we  confess  that  it  is  remarkable  how 
Buddhists  can  dispense  at  all  with  the  God-idea. 

We  grant  that  no  religion  can  exist  without  a 
belief  in  the  existence  of  an  ultimate  authority  of 
conduct ;  but  in  this  sense  Buddhism,  too,  teaches  a 
belief  in  God.  The  Abhidharma,  or  Buddhist  phi- 
losophy, distinctly  rejects  the  idea  of  a  creation  by 
an  Ishvara,  i.  e.,  a  personal  Creator;  but  it  recog- 
nizes that  all  deeds,  be  they  good  or  evil,  will  bear 
fruit  according  to  their  nature,  and  they  teach  that 
this  law,  which  is  ultimately  identical  with  the  law 
of  cause  and  effect,  is  an  irreversible  reality ;  that 
there  are  no  exceptions  or  deviations  from  it.  Thus, 
law  takes  to  some  extent  the  place  of  the  God-idea, 
and  Buddhists  gain  a  personal  attitude  to  it,  similarly 
as  Christians  do  when  speaking  of  God,  in  quite  a 
peculiar  way.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trikaya,  or  the 
three  bodies,  teaches  us  that  Buddha  has  three  per- 
sonalities ;  the  first  one  is  the  Dharma-Kaya,  or  the 
body  of  the  law  :  it  corresponds  to  the  Holy  Ghost 
in  the  Christian  dogmatology.  The  second  person- 
ality is  the  Nirmana-Kaya,  or  the  body  of  transfor- 
mations ;  it  is  transient  in  its  various  forms,  and  its 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  197 

most  important  and  latest  appearance  has  been  Gau- 
tama Siddhartha.  This  corresponds  to  the  second 
person  of  the  Christian,  Trinity,  to  God  the  Son,  or 
Christ.  But  there  is  this  difference :  that  the  Nir- 
mana  Kaya  appeared  before  Gautama  Siddhartha  in 
many  other  incarnations  and  will  reappear  in  this 
and  other  worlds  again ;  for  every  one  who  has  at- 
tained enlightenment  and  reached  the  ideal  of  perfec- 
tion is  a  Tathagata,  a  Buddha,  a  preacher  of  moral 
truth.  It  is  in  agreement  with  this  conception  that 
Philo  speaks  of  Moses  as  a  former  in  carnation  of  the 
Logos.  The  third  personality  of  Buddha  is  called 
Sambhoga-Kaya,  or  the  body  of  bliss.  It  is  the 
Christian  idea  of  God  the  Father.  Buddha  in  his 
capacity  as  Sambhoga-Kaya  is  described  as  eternal, 
omnipresent,  and  omnipotent.  He  is  the  life  of  all 
that  lives  and  the  reality  of  all  that  exists.  Thus  he 
is  the  All  in  All,  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and  have 
our  being. 

Buddhistic  atheism,  apparently,  is  not  wholly  un- 
like Christian  theism. 

Christianity  possesses  in  the  idea,  and,  indeed,  in 
the  very  word  "  God,"  representing  the  authority  of 
moral  conduct,  in  a  most  forcible  manner,  a  symbol 
of  invaluable  importance  ;  it  is  an  advantage  which 
has  contributed  not  a  little  to  make  Christianity  so 
powerful  and  popular,  so  impressive  and  effective  as 
it  has  proved  to  be.  In  this  little  word  "  God," 
much  has  been  condensed,  and  it  contains  an  un- 
fathomable depth  of  religious  comfort. 

No  serious  thinker  who  has  ever  grappled  with 


198      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

the  problem  of  the  God-idea  can  have  any  doubt 
that  the  conception  of  God  as  an  individual  being  is 
a  mere  allegory,  which,  however,  symbolizes  a  great 
truth  which  it  is  difficult  to  explain  to  untrained  minds 
in  purely  scientific  terms.  There  is  a  disadvantage 
and  there  is  also  an  advantage  in  mythological  terms. 
Let  us  here  as  everywhere  learn  from  various  methods 
of  presenting  a  truth.  Let  us  prove  all  and  hold  fast 
that  which  is  good. 


BUDDHISTIC   ART. 

The  spirit  of  Buddhism  also  exhibits  a  palpable 
affinity  with  Christian  conceptions  in  its  art  pro- 
ductions, which,  we  have  every  reason  to  believe, 
originated  uninfluenced  by  either  the  technique  or 
the  taste  of  the  Western  civilization.  The  difference 
between  Western  and  Eastern  taste  is  as  strongly 
marked  in  religious  art  as  in  the  other  walks  of  life. 
Nevertheless  there  is  an  unmistakable  coincidence 
of  aspiration,  which  will  strike  any  one  who  visits 
the  Buddhistic  departments  of  the  Musee  Guimet  at 
Paris,  or  glances  over  the  Illustrated  Guide  of  its 
collections.  We  reproduce  here  a  few  pictures  which 
seem  to  us  especially  instructive,  because  they  ex- 
press sentiments  which  are  not  foreign  to  the  student 
of  Christian  art. 

1.  Mi-ro-Kou,  or  Maitreya,  the  Buddha  to  come, 
of  gilded  wood  (Sixteenth  Century),  seated  upon  a 
lotus  in  an  attitude  as  if  ready  to  rise  and  proclaim 
to  the  world  the  Gospel  of  the  Good  Law.  The  halo 


MI-Ro  KOU  Of  MAITRKYA. 


2.   BODH1SATTVA. 


. 

3-   SAM-BO. 


4.    KOUAN-YIN. 


5.   AM1DA  (BUDDHA  AM1TABHA.) 


6.   THE  DEVIL  AS  A  BUDDHISTIC  MONK. 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  199 

round  his  head  and  the  divinely  glorious  attitude  of 
his  whole  person  remind  us  of  Koman  Catholic  con- 
ceptions of  Christ,  such  as  can  be  found  in  abun- 
dance in  all  Catholic  countries,  especially  in  Southern 
Europe  and  in  the  Spanish  colonies  of  America. 

2.  Bodhisattva,  the  teacher  of  the  law,  also  of 
gilded  wood  (Fifteenth  Century),  stands  upon  the 
lotus  in  the  attitude  of  a  preacher.     In  contrast  to  the 
statue  of  Mi-ro-Kou   it   emphasizes    the   human  in 
Buddha  and  reminds  us  of  the  Protestant  conception 
of  Christ,  which  found  its  noblest  representation  in 
Thorwaldsen's  famous  statue. 

3.  Sam-bo,  or  the  Buddhistic  trinity,  again  repre- 
senting Roman  Catholic  taste,  shows  the  three  jewels, 
the  Buddha,  the  Dharma,  and  the  Sangha.     The 
Dharma  (in  one  sense  the  Christian  logos,  in  another 
the  Holy  Ghost)  being  most  appropriately  repre- 
sented by  written  words,  nor  is  it  impossible  that 
its  higher  position  may  indicate  a  certain  superiority 
over  the  Buddha  and  the  Sangha.     For  the  Buddha 
is  the  incarnation  and  the  Sangha  the  continued  pro- 
clamation of  the  Dharma. 

4.  Kouan-yin,  a  peculiar  conception   of   Buddha 
(made  of  porcelain),  represents  Buddha  in  one  of  his 
female  incarnations  as  the  goddess  of  charity  and 
motherly  love.     The  resemblance  to  Roman  Catholic 
representations  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  Christ,  is  ob- 
vious, and  the  coincidence  loses  none  of  its  force 
when  we  consider  that  the  mythological  conception 
of  Kouan-yin  is  radically  different  from  that  of  Mary. 
Buddha  is  conceived  not  as  the  object  of  motherly 


200      BUDDHISM   AND    ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

love,  not  as  the  infant,  but  as  Love  itself.  .  The 
statues  on  both  sides  of  the  chair  are  Hoang-tchen- 
sa'i,  the  disciple  of  Kouan-yin,  and  Loung-nou,  the 
servant  of  Kouan-yin  ;  the  former  in  an  attitude  of 
worship,  the  latter  holding  in  his  hands  a  luminous 
pearl.  The  necklace  of  Kouan-yin  contains  an  orna- 
ment in  the  shape  of  a  cross  of  the  Renaissance. 

5.  Amida  (Buddha  Amitabha),  of  carved  wood  and 
gilded  (Twelfth  Century),  an  art  production  of  the 
Tendai  sect.    The  statue  exhibits  a  softness  of  outline 
that  reminds  of  Kouan-yin.     Buddha's  attitude  and 
the  grace  of  his  appearance  is  here  almost  womanly, 
and  might  among  Roman  Catholics  serve  as  a  statue 
of  the  Virgin. 

6.  The  Devil  as  a  Buddhistic  monk,  carved  wood 
of  the  Seventeenth  Century,   finds  many  parallel 
productions  on  the  pinnacles  of  Gothic  cathedrals. 
There  is  little  probability  that  the  Japanese  artist 
who,  with  great  ingenuity  and  humor,  sculptured 
this  admirable  statue,  ever  heard  of  Rabelais,  whose 
verse  from  Book  IV,  chapter  xxiv,  has  become  an 
English  proverb,  which,  according  to  Bartletfs  Fa- 
miliar Quotations^  page  772,  reads  as  follows : 

When  the  Devil  was  sick,  the  Devil  a  monk  would  be  : 
When  the  Devil  was  well,   the  devil  a  monk  was  he." 

There  is  not  only  an  obvious  similarity  in  the  re- 
ligious ideas  and  objects  of  devotion,  but  even  in 
religious  satire,  which  cannot  be  explained  by  imita- 
tion, but  must  have  originated  independently  in 
Buddhism  as  in  Christianitv. 


BUDDHISM    AND    CHRISTIANITY.  201 

THE   CONNEXIONS    BETWEEN   THE    EAST  AND   WEST. 

The  question  whether  Christianity  and  Buddhism 
have  a  common  origin  is  perhaps  less  important  than 
it  appears,  yet  there  attaches  to  it  a  peculiar  interest 
because  there  is  a  numerically  very  strong  section  of 
Christians  who  would  not  allow  that  the  noble 
ethical  maxims  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  could  have  de- 
veloped according  to  the  laws  of  nature  in  the 
normal  progress  of  evolution.  There  is  certainly 
very  little  probability  of  a  borrowing  on  the  part  of 
Buddhism,  as  it  is  in  all  its  essential  features  consid- 
erably older  than  Christianity.  Buddha  lived  in 
the  lifth  century  before  Christ.  The  Buddhistic 
canon  was  settled  at  the  time  of  the  second  council 
which  took  place  about  250  B.  C.,  and  Ashoka's  rock 
inscriptions,  which  contain  the  gist  of  Buddha's  doc- 
trine and  testify  to  its  established  existence,  date 
from  the  same  period.  This  excludes  at  once  the 
supposition  that  Buddhism  is  indebted  to  Chris- 
tianity for  its  lofty  morality  and  the  purity  of  its 
ideals. 

We  must  add  that  it  remains  not  impossible 
(although  not  probable)  that  Buddhism,  as  it  de- 
veloped in  its  later  phases  in  the  North,  has  received 
from  Christianity  some  modes  of  worship  for  which 
there  would  have  been  no  place  in  the  older  Bud- 
dhism. Thus,  Professor  Beal  believes  that  Christian 
ideas  and  forms  of  worship  must  have  been  imported 
into  Northern  India  as  early  as  50  A.D.  lie  con- 
siders it  as  highly  probable  that  King  Gondoforus  of 
the  Legenda  Aurea  is  identical  with  Gondophares, 


202      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS    CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

the  founder  of  the  Scythian  dynasty  in  Seistan  Yan- 
dahar  and  Sindh,  coins  of  whose  reign  are  mentioned 
by  General  Cunningham.  (Arch.  Survey  of  Ind., 
II,  p.  59.)  Professor  Beal  trusts  that  the  old  legend 
of  St.  Thomas's  visit  to  India  is  confirmed  ;  he  does 
not  consider,  however,  the  possibility,  which  is  not 
improbable,  that  the  legend  of  St.  Thomas  may,  like 
the  St.  Josaphat  story,  be  a  Christianized  Buddhist 
legend.  We  waive  the  question  and  confine  our- 
selves to  stating  that  the  evidences  which  Professor 
Beal  introduces  to  prove  the  possibility  of  a  Christian 
influence  upon  later  Buddhism  go  still  farther  to  es- 
tablish the  possibility  of  a  Buddhistic  influence  upon 
Judea  before  the  time  of  Christ's  appearance.  Pro- 
fessor Beal  says  (p.  133-134) : 

"  The  Parthian  prince,  Pacorus,  was,  as  Josephus  tells  us,  in 
possession  of  Syria  and  at  Jerusalem.  .  .  .  Then  again,  the 
marriage  of  Chandragupta  with  a  daughter  of  Seleucus,  and 
the  apparent  knowledge  possessed  by  the  grandson  of  Chan- 
dragupta, the  great  Asoka,  with  the  Greek  King  Antiochus, 
and  his  embassy  to  four  other  Greek  kings,— all  this  shows 
that  there  must  have  been  some  connexion  between  India  and 
the  Western  world,  from  the  time  of  the  establishment  of 
Greek  influence  in  the  valley  of  the  Oxus." 

There  were  plenty  of  channels  through  which 
Buddhist  doctrines  could  reach  Palestine. 

Speaking  of  the  similarity  between  the  Buddhist 
story  of  the  wise  judge  and  the  account  of  Solomon's 
judgment,  as  told  in  the  Book  of  Kings,  Prof.  Khys 
Davids  mentions  the  commercial  relations  that 
obtained  in  those  early  days  between  Judea  and 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  203 

India.     He  says  (Buddhist  Birth  Stories,  pp.  xlvi.- 
xlvii.) : 

"The  land  of  Ophir  was  probably  in  India.  The  Hebrew 
names  of  the  apes  and  peacocks  said  to  have  been  brought 
thence  by  Solomon's  coasting-vessels  are  merely  corruptions 
of  Indian  names.  .  .  .  But  any  intercourse  between  Solomon's 
servants  and  the  people  of  Ophir  must,  from  the  difference  of 
language,  have  been  of  the  most  meagre  extent ;  and  we  may 
safely  conclude  that  it  was  not  the  means  of  the  migration  of 
our  tale. 

"  Though  the  intercourse  by  sea  was  not  continued  after 
Solomon's  time,  gold  of  Ophir,  ivory,  jade,  and  Eastern  gems 
still  found  their  way  to  the  West ;  and  it  would  be  an  interest- 
ing task  for  an  Assyrian  or  Hebrew  scholar  to  trace  the  evi- 
dence of  this  ancient  overland  route  in  other  ways." 

In  order  to  prove  the  possibility  of  an  exchange 
of  thought  between  India  and  Judea,  it  is  not  even 
necessary  to  fall  back  upon  these  old  commercial 
relations  which  are  difficult  to  trace,  for  we  know 
for  sure  that  since  Alexander's  time  the  connexions 
between  the  East  and  the  West  in  general,  and  espe- 
cially between  Buddhist  countries  and  Judea,  were 
quite  intimate.  Ashoka's  rock  inscriptions  alone  are 
sufficient  to  prove  that  official  legations  had  been 
dispatched  from  India  to  the  most  important  neigh- 
boring countries  and  to  Western  Asia  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  making  a  strong  propaganda  for  Buddha's 
religion  and  the  Buddhistic  principles  of  universal 
kindness  and  compassion  for  the  suffering.  The 
second  edict  mentions  a  legation  to  King  Antiochus 
for  mere  humanitarian  purposes.  It  reads  as  fol- 
lows : 


204      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

"  Everywhere  in  the  kingdom  of  the  king  Priyadarshin.*  be- 
loved of  the  gods,  and  (among  those)  who  (are)  his  neighbors,  as 
the  Codas,  the  Pandyas,  the  prince  of  the  Satiyas,  the  prince  of 
Karalas  Tamraparni,  theYavanas  f  king  Antiochus  and  (among 
the)  others  who  (are)  the  vassal  kings  of  Antiochus— every- 
where the  king  Priyadarshin ,  beloved  of  the  gods,  founded  two 
(kinds  of)  hospitals — hospitals  for  men  and  hospitals  for  ani- 
mals. Wherever  there  were  no  healing  herbs  to  be  found, 
whether  herbs  fit  for  men  or  herbs  fit  for  animals,  to  all  such 
places  and  in  all  such  places,  he  issued  orders  to  have  such 
herbs  brought  and  planted.  Also  where  there  were  no  healing 
roots  and  fruits  he  issued  orders  to  have  (them)  brought  and 
planted.  And  along  the  roads  he  had  trees  planted  and  wells 
dug  for  the  use  of  man  and  beast. ;' 

The  thirteenth  edict  speaks  directly  of  a  mission- 
ary legation  for  spreading  Buddha's  religion.  The 
first  part  of  the  inscription  is  mutilated.  The  Ger- 
man translator,  Professor  Btihler,  says  that  from  the 
few  correctly  read  words  of  a  version  of  the  same 
edict  preserved  near  Shahbazgarhi,  and  from  the 
fragment  of  the  Ginar  inscription,  the  thought  of 
the  missing  lines  can  be  restored.  Having  expressed 
remorse  at  the  atrocities  committed  before  his  con- 
version in  Kaliriga,  the  king  states  that  it  is  his  in- 
tention from  now  on  to  make  no  more  conquests  by 
the  sword,  but  is  determined  to  suffer  from  his  free 
neighbors  everything  that  can  possibly  be  endured, 
He  adds  that  even  the  wild  tribes  in  the  forest  ought 
to  be  participants  of  this  kindness,  and  concludes 
with  the  remark  that  he  has  no  other  desire  than  to 

*  This  is  the  customary  appellation  of  Ashoka. 
t  The  Yavanas  are  the  Greeks. 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  205 

treat  all  beings  with  indulgence,  justice,  and  clem- 
ency.    The  part  still  extant  reads  : 

' '  (The  beloved  of  the  gods  wishes)  .  .  .  for  all  creatures 
.  .  .  forbearance,  justice,  and  clemency  !  But  the  follow- 
ing is  judged  of  the  greatest  consequence  by  the  beloved  of 
the  gods,  namely,  conquest  by  the  law  (Dhammavijaye.)  This 
conquest  is  made  by  the  beloved  of  the  gods  as  well  here  (in 
his  own  kingdom)  as  among  all  his  neighbors.  For  at  a  dis- 
tance of  six  hundred  Yojanas  lives  the  (king)  of  the  Yavanas 
(Greeks) ,  called  Amtiyoga  (Antiochus)  his  neighbor,  and  be- 
yond him  are  four,  4,  kings,  one  named  Tulamaya  (Ptolemaeus), 
one  called  Aikyashudala  (Alexander) ;  (further),  towards  the 
South  the  Codas  (Colas)  and  the  Pamdiyas  (Pandyas)  as  far  as 
Tambapamni  (Ceylon),  likewise  the  Hida  king  among  the 
Vishas  (Bais),  and  Vajis  (Vrijis),  the  Yavanas  (the  Greeks) and 
the  Kambojas(Kabulis),  among  the  Nabha  tribes  of  Nabhaka, 
among  the  Bhojas  and  Pitinikas,  among  Andhras  and  Pliadas 
(Puliadas) — everywhere  is  the  doctrine  of  the  law  of  the  be- 
loved of  the  gods  followed.  Even  those  to  whom  the  envoys 
of  the  beloved  of  the  gods  do  not  go,  follow  the  law,  as  soon 
as  they  have  heard  the  comments  issued  by  the  beloved  of  the 
gods  according  to  the  law,  his  sermon  of  the  law,  and  they 
shall  follow  it  in  the  time  to  come.  The  conquest  which  by 
this  means  is  every  where  accomplished  fills  (me)  with  a  feeling 
of  joy.  Firmly  founded  is  (this)  joy,  the  joy  at  the  conquest 
by  the  law.  But  (this)  joy  is  in  sooth  merely  something 
slight.  The  beloved  of  the  gods  holds  that  only  of  worth 
which  has  reference  to  the  Beyond.  But  this  religious  edict 
was  written  for  the  following  purpose,  To  what  purpose  ? 
That  my  sons  and  grandsons  (to  the  end  of  time)  shall  deem 
no  other  kind  of  conquest  desirable,  that  if  a  conquest  by 
weapons  should  be  absolutely  necessary  they  should  exercise 
mercy  and  clemency,  and  that  they  shall  only  regard  conquest 
by  the  law  as  real  conquest.  Such  a  (conquest)  brings  salva- 
tion here  to  you.  But  all  (its  joy)  is  the  joy  of  effort.  This, 
too,  brings  salvation  here  and  beyond."* 

*  Translated  from  the  Zeitsch.  fur  Morgenl.  Gesellschaft,  Vol. 
XIV.  pp.  135,  136. 


206      BUDDHISM   AND    ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

Thus  there  cannot  be  the  slightest  doubt  that 
Buddhist  missionaries  were  sent  to  Western  Asia  in 
the  third  century  before  the  Christian  era  and  must 
have  made  attempts  to  preach  Buddhism. 

Concerning  the  importation  of  Buddhist  tales,  Pro- 
fessor Khys  Davids  says  (p.  xliii.) : 

"  We  only  know  that  at  the  end  of  the  fourth,  and  still  more 
in  the  third,  century  before  Christ  there  was  constant  travel- 
ling to  and  fro  between  the  Greek  dominions  in  the  East  and 
the  adjoining  parts  of  India,  which  were  then  Buddhist,  and 
that  the  birth  stories,  viz.,  the  Jataka  were  already  popular 
among  the  Buddhists  in  Afghanistan,  where  the  Greeks  re- 
mained for  a  long  time." 

Shall  we  assume  with  Ehys  Davids  that  a  great 
number  of  Jataka  tales,  such  as  the  legend  of  the 
Kisa-Gotami,*  the  story  of  the  ass  in  the  lion's  skin, 
the  jackal  and  the  crow,  and  other  prototypes  of  the 
so-called  ^Esopean  fables,  found  their  way  to  Greece, 
there  to  reappear  in  Greek  literature,  while  the  main 
ideas  of  Buddha's  religion  remained  utterly  unknown 
in  the  West  ?  No  Western  traveller,  we  are  bid  to 
believe,  ever  heard  of  them  in  the  East,  and  no  East- 
ern traveller  ever  mentioned  them  in  the  West.  And 
yet  we  know  that  the  Buddhists  were  burning  with 
zeal  for  propagating  their  religion,  and  the  Sangha 
sent  out  missionaries  into  all  quarters  of  the  world. 
It  would  be  strange  if  Buddhist  missionaries  had 
gone  to  all  neighboring  countries  except  to  Palestine, 
and  that  all  kinds  of  Buddhist  stories  and  wise  saws 

*See  Jacob  H.  Thiessen,  Die  Legende  von  Kisd-Gotami,  Bres- 
lau,  1880. 


BUDDHISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  207 

were  translated  into  other  tongues,  but  not  the  essen- 
tial doctrines  of  their  sacred  literature. 


POSSIBLE   BUDDHISTIC   ORIGIN. 

The  probability  that  an  influx  of  Buddhistic  doc- 
trines took  place  is  very  strong ;  nevertheless  we  do 
not  press  the  theory  that  Christianity  was  influenced 
by  Buddha's  religion,  but  regard  it  as  a  mere  hypoth- 
esis. Here  is  a  proposition  of  how  matters  might 
have  been : 

It  is  certain  that  Buddhist  missionaries,  had  they 
come  to  Palestine,  would  not  have  attacked  the  reli- 
gion of  the  country,  but  would,  in  accordance  with 
their  traditional  policy,  have  adapted  themselves  as 
much  as  possible  to  the  current  ideas  of  the  people. 
They  would  have  preached  the  gospel  of  Buddha, 
and  would  have  tried  to  proclaim  their  message  in 
the  very  terms  of  the  Jewish  creed.  The  soil  was 
prepared  for  them  by  Isaiah  and  other  prophets  who 
objected  to  bloody  sacrifices.  It  would  be  quite  in 
accord  with  their  methods  pursued  in  other  countries 
to  adopt  the  Messiah  idea,  and  to  embody  the  Jewish 
notions  into  their  faith.  The  Buddhist  missionaries 
did  not  cling  to  Gautama  Siddhartha ;  they  would 
always  be  as  ready  to  preach  the  Buddha  of  the  past 
as  the  Buddha  to  come.  Since  Buddha  himself  had 
proclaimed  the  coming  of  Maitreya,  the  Buddha  of 
Kindness,  must  it  not  have  appeared  possible  to  Bud- 
dhists living  in  Judaea  and  observing  the  religious 
earnestness  of  the  Jews,  that  Maitreya  was  to  rise 


208      BUDDHISM   AND    ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

among  the  Jews  ?  This  would  explain  not  only  the 
origin  of  the  Essene  movement,  which  otherwise 
appears  very  obscure,  but  also  the  change  of  the 
worldly  idea  of  a  Jewish  Messiah  into  the  conception 
of  a  spiritual  saviour  of  the  whole  human  race  from 
sin.  The  first  symptoms  of  this  change  are  found 
already  in  the  Jewish  Apocrypha,  especially  in  the 
book  of  Esdras,  in  which  "  the  Son  of  David"  begins 
to  be  called  "  the  Son  of  Man,"  an  expression  that 
was  adopted  by  Jesus.  The  great  mass  of  the  Jews 
of  the  time  of  Jesus  still  expected  a  Messiah  who 
would  be  like  Judas  MaccabaBus,  a  warrior  and  a 
worldly  king,  a  redeemer  from  foreign  oppression, 
yet  the  Essenes  and  the  disciples  of  John  regarded 
the  various  dignities  which  tradition  attributed  to 
the  Messiah,  as  mere  similes.  In  their  idea  the  Mes- 
siah would  be  an  ascetic  hermit  and  a  wandering 
preacher,  more  like  Buddha  than  like  Herod,  for  his 
kingdom  was  not  of  this  world  ;  he  was  the  Dhar- 
maraja,  the  king  of  truth. 

As  the  Brahman  god,  Brahma,  continued  to  play 
an  important  part  in  the  Buddhist  mythology,  so  we 
ought  to  expect  that  Buddhist  missionaries  would 
not  have  attempted  to  deny  the  existence  of  Jehovah. 
Yet,  knowing  the  sternness  of  Jewish  monotheism, 
we  can  understand  that  the  Jewish  God  could  not 
take  a  place  inferior  to  Buddha  ;  and  as  Buddha  on 
the  other  hand  was  superior  to  all  gods,  both  God 
and  Buddha  could  only  be  identified,  so  that  Christ 
could  say :  "  I  and  the  Father  are  one." 

Considering  the  fact  that  later  Buddhism  devel- 


BUDDHISM   AND  .CHRISTIANITY.  209 

oped  out  of  its  own  elements  a  cosmic  authority  of 
conduct  which  practically  serves  the  same  purpose 
as  the  Christian  God-idea,  we  cannot  regard  it  as 
strange  that  Buddhists  who  lived  in  Judaea  should 
have  adapted  the  Jewish  theism  to  the  trikaya  of 
their  own  faith.  The  result  could  only  be  a  trinity 
conception  such  as  taught  by  the  church.*  Now  if 
a  Buddhist  brotherhood  had  settled  in  Judaea,  they 
would  have  recruited  themselves  from  Jews,  and  we 
can  fairly  assume  that  they  naturally  would  have 
set  on  foot  a  movement  like  that  of  the  Essenes, 
and  the  first  Christian  society  at  Jerusalem  with 
its  communistic  ideals,  its  martyr  spirit,  and  its  in- 
vincible faith  in  the  kingdom  of  truth. 

F.  MAX  MULLEK'S  OPINION. 

Prof.  F.  Max  Miiller,  who,  when  he  first  became 
acquainted  with  Buddhism,  was  a  severe  critic  of 
its  doctrines,  has  gradually  changed  his  views  and 
has  at  last,  in  spite  of  himself,  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  Christianity  has  originated  under  Buddhist 
influences.  We  here  reproduce  the  report  of  the 
lecture  of  his,  published  in  the  Journal  of  the 
Mahabhodi  Society. 

"  Professor  Max  Miiller  lectured  at  the  rooms  of 
the  Koyal  Society  of  Literature,  Hanover  Square, 

*  The  development  of  the  Christian  Trinity  is  still  shrouded  in 
darkness.  We  know  from  passages  in  the  Apocryphal  Gospels 
that  the  Holy  Ghost  was  identified  by  some  of  the  old  Christians 
with  the  Logos  ;  and  some  considered  the  Third  Person  of  the 
Deity  as  a  feminine  presence  and  the  Mother  of  Christ. 
14 


210      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

London,  on  "  Coincidences."  The  Lord  Chancellor 
took  the  chair,  and  there  was  a  large  company  of 
ladies  and  gentlemen,  including  the  Kev.  Canon 
Wilberforce. 

"  The  Professor  said  that  two  Roman  Catholic  mis- 
sionaries-travelling in  Thibet  were  startled  at  the 
coincidence  between  their  own  ritual  and  that  of 
the  Buddhist  priesthood.  The  latter  had  crosiers, 
mitres,  dalmatics,  copes,  services  with  two  choirs, 
five-chained  censers,  blessings  given  while  extending 
the  right  hand  over  the  people,  the  use  of  beads, 
worship  of  the  saints,  processions,  litanies,  holy 
water.  The  missionaries  attributed  these  coinci- 
dences to  the  Devil,  determined  to  scandalize  pious 
Roman  Catholics.  There  the  matter  rested. 

"  When  the  ancient  language  of  the  Brahmins  be- 
gan to  be  seriously  studied  by  such  men  as  Wilkins, 
Sir  William  Jones,  and  Colebrooke,  the  idea  that 
all  languages  were  derived  from  Hebrew  was  so 
firmly  fixed  and  prevalent  that  it  would  have  re- 
quired great  courage  to  say  otherwise.  Frederic 
Schlegel  was  the  first  to  announce  that  the  classic 
languages  of  Greece  and  Italy,  and  Sanskrit,  the 
sacred  language  of  India,  were  offshoots  of  the  same 
stem.  It  might  be  laid  down  as  a  general  principle 
that  if  a  coincidence  could  be  produced  by  natural 
causes,  no  other  explanation  need  be  sought.  This 
however,  could  not  be  the  reason  why  mitres,  copes, 
dalmatics,  crosiers,  and  many  other  things,  exactly, 
like  those  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  existed  in 
Thibet.  The  conclusion  was  forced  upon  those  who 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  211 

first  studied  the  subject  without  passion,  that  there 
must  at  one  time  have  been  communication  between 
Catholic  priests  and  the  Buddhists,  and  it  was  an 
historical  fact  that  Christian  missionaries  were  active 
in  China  from  the  middle  of  the  seventh  to  the  end 
of  the  eighth  century.  They  had  monasteries  and 
schools  in  different  towns,  and  were  patronized  by 
the  Government.  Here,  then,  was  a  coincidence 
explained  in  a  fairly  satisfactory  manner. 

"  Other  coincidences  between  Buddhism  and  Chris- 
tianity had  been  pointed  out  again  and  again,  but 
too  often  in  the  impassioned  tone  of  theological 
controversy.  Coincidences  between  all  the  sacred 
books  of  the  world  existed  and  Professor  Miiller 
ventured  to  say  that  they  ought  to  be  welcomed, 
for  surely  no  truth  lost  value  because  it  was  held 
not  only  by  ourselves  but  also  by  millions  of  human 
beings  whom  we  formerly  called  unbelievers. 

"  Some  of  the  coincidences  between  Buddhism  and 
Christianity  belonged  to  the  ancient  period  of  the 
former.  They  included  confessions,  fasting,  celibacy 
of  the  priesthood,  and  even  rosaries,  and,  as  they 
were  honored  in  India  before  the  beginning  of  our 
era,  it  followed  that  if  they  had  been  borrowed  the 
borrowers  were  Christians. 

"How,  it  might  be  asked,  had  knowledge  of 
these  things  been  spread?  Through  the  fact  that 
Buddhism  in  its  essence  was  a  missionary  religion. 
We  heard  of  Buddhist  missionaries  being  sent  to 
every  part  of  the  known  world  in  the  third  century 
before  Christ. 


212      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

"Indian  and  Buddhist  influences  had  long  been 
suspected  in  the  ancient  Greek  fable  and  some  parts 
of  the  Bible.  The  story  of  the  ass  in  the  lion's  skin 
was  to  be  found  in  Pali.  Probably  it  was  true  that 
the  germs  of  some  famous  stories  existed  among  our 
Aryan  ancestors  before  their  separation,  but  the 
form  would  be  that  of  the  proverb.  Some  difficulty 
had  been  caused  by  the  question  whether  the  fables 
common  to  Greece  and  India  had  travelled  east  or 
west.  The  Greeks  themselves  never  claimed  that 
kind  of  literature  as  their  invention,  though  they 
made  it  their  own  by  clothing  it  in  Greek  forms. 
Moreover,  the  fable  had  many  traces  of  Eastern 
origin,  and  they  abounded  in  Sanskrit  literature. 
They  were  constantly  appealed  to  in  India,  and 
were  incorporated  in  the  sacred  canon  of  the  Budd- 
hists. Formerly  doubtful,  Professor  Max  Mtiller 
had,  after  conscientious  study,  become  more  and 
more  convinced  that  India  was  the  soil  that  origin- 
ally produced  the  fable  as  we  knew  it. 

"  Again  there  were  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 
stories  which  had  been  traced  to  the  Buddhist 
Jataka,  and,  indeed,  nobody  could  look  at  Buddhism 
without  finding  something  which  reminded  them  of 
Christianity.  The  Professor  did  not  allude  to  things 
essential  to  Christianity ;  he  spoke  rather  of  the 
framework. 

"  Under  the  disguise  of  St.  Josaphat,  Buddha  him- 
self had  been  raised  to  the  rank  of  a  saint  in  the 
Koman  Catholic  Church,  and  the  Professor  saw  no 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  213 

reason  why  Buddha  should  not  retain  a  place 
among  saints,  not  all  of  whom  were  more  saintly 
than  he. 

"  The  story  of  the  judgment  of  Solomon  occurred 
in  the  Buddhist  canon,  but  in  a  somewhat  different 
form.  "We  read  there  of  the  man  who  had  no  children 
by  his  first  wife,  but  one  son  by  his  second  wife. 
To  console  the  first  he  gave  her  the  custody  of  the 
child.  After  his  death,  each  of  the  wives  claimed 
the  boy.  They  went  before  Misaka.  He  directed 
them  to  try  which  could  pull  the  child  from  the 
other  by  main  force.  As  soon  as  he  began  to  cry, 
one  of  the  women  would  pull  no  longer,  and  Misaka 
declared  that  she  was  the  true  mother.  The  Profes- 
sor considered  this  story  truer  psychologically  than 
the  judgment  of  Solomon.  To  look  upon  the  latter, 
as.actually  dating  from  the  time  of  Solomon,  could 
hardly  commend  itself  to  Hebrew  scholars  of  the 
present  day. 

"  The  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  was  found  in  the 
Buddhist  sacred  books.  So  was  the  story  of  the 
man  who  walked  upon  the  water  so  long  as  he  had 
faith  in  his  divinity,  and  began  to  sink  when  his 
faith  failed.  Such  a  coincidence  could  not  be  set 
down  to  accident,  and  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  date  of  the  Buddhist  parable  was  anterior  to 
that  told  by  St.  Luke. 

"  Then  there  was  the  parable  of  the  loaves  and 
fishes.  In  Buddha's  case  he  had  one  loaf,  and  after 
he  had  fed  his  five  hundred  brethren,  as  well  as  his 
host  and  hostess  and  the  people  of  a  monastery,  so 


214      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

much  bread  was  left  that  it  had  to  be  thrown  into  a 
cave. 

"  If  such  coincidences  between  the  Buddhist  sacred 
books  and  the  Bible  could  be  accounted  for  by  ref- 
erence to  the  tendency  of  our  common  humanity, 
let  analogous  cases  be  produced.  If  they  were  set 
doAvn  as  merely  accidental,  let  similar  cases  be 
brought  from  the  chapter  of  accidents. 

"  Max  Miiller's  own  opinion  was  that  at  least  they 
were  too  numerous  and  complex  to  be  attributed  to 
the  latter  cause.  He  had  tried  to  lay  the  case  be- 
fore his  hearers  like  a  judge  summing  up  for  a  jury. 
He  would  only  ask  them  to  remember  that  the 
Buddhist  canon  in  which  these  coincidences  were 
found,  was  certainly  reduced  to  writing  in  the  first 
century  before  the  Christian  era.  All,  however, 
that  he  felt  strongly  was  that  the  case  should  not 
remain  undecided."  * 

It  is  often  assumed  that  if  the  priority  of  Bud- 
dhism were  proved,  it  would  imply  that  Christianity 
would  have  to  be  regarded  as  a  deteriorization  of 
Buddhism  ;  it  would  deprive  Christianity  of  all  claim 
to  originality,  beauty,  and  truth.  We  might  on  the 
same  argument  say  that  Anglo-Saxon  is  a  degene- 
rated form  of  Low  German,  or  that  the  polar  bear  is 
a  degenerated  species  of  the  grizzly  bear,  or  even  that 
civilized  man  is  a  deteriorated  anthropoid.  Chris- 
tianity embodies  in  its  world-conception  the  best 
thoughts  of  the  past  from  all  quarters  of  the  globe. 
The  Logos  idea  was  derived  from  Neo-Platonism, 

*  Journ.  Maha-Bodhi  Soc.,  \,  4. 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  215 

the  God-idea  is  a  Jewish  tradition,  baptism  an  Es- 
senian  rite,  the  holy  communion  partly  reminds  us 
of  an  ancient  Zarathushtrian  cult,  partly  appears  to 
be  a  substitution  of  bread  offerings  in  the  place  of 
bloody  sacrifices  ;  *  the  love  of  enemies  was  preached 
in  a  similar  form  five  centuries  before  Christ  in  the 
far  East.  The  idea  of  a  world-Saviour  is  Buddhistic. 
In  a  word,  none  of  the  elements  of  Christianity  is 
radically  new ;  nevertheless,  the  whole  in  its  peculiar 

*  Justinus  Martyr  (Apol.  I.,  86),  referring  to  a  similar  rite  of 
distributing  bread  among  the  worshippers  and  handing  them 
a  chalice  of  water  to  drink  that  obtained  among  the  Parsees, 
accuses  the  Devil  of  aping  the  Lord.  While  it  is  not  impos- 
sible that  the  Parsees  of  Justinus's  time  had  adopted  some 
features  of  the  Christian  Sacrament,  it  is  certain  that  the  in- 
stitution of  the  haoma-offering  was  an  old  established  ceremony 
in  Zarathushtra's  religion.  It  is  of  Aryan  origin.  Haoma  is 
the  Vedic  Soviet,  and  the  holy  meat  of  Myazda,  small  pieces  of 
which  were  eaten  on  little  cakes  called  "  draona,"  consecrated 
in  the  name  of  deceased  persons,  are  the  Vedic  hotrd.  And  it 
is  said  that  he  who  drinks  of  the  white  haoma  or  Gao-kerena 
will  on  the  day  of  resurrection  become  immortal.  (See 
Darmstetter's  Introduction  to  the  Zend  Avesta  in  S.  B.  of  E., 
IV..  p.  Ixix  and  also  the  note  on  p.  56. )  Zarathushtra  calls  "  the 
sacred  cup  and  the  haoma  the  best  weapons  to  strike  and  repel 
the  evil-doer  Angra  Mainyn."  (Ibid.  p.  206.) 

It  is  possible  that  among  theEssenesof  Palestine  Buddhistic 
influence  replaced  the  intoxicating  haoma  by  water,  while  the 
Greek  to  whom  wine  was  a  symbol  of  holy  enthusiasm  again 
changed  the  water  into  wine. 

The  original  meaning  of  breaking  the  bread  must  have  been 
that  in  the  new  dispensation  a  loaf  is  sacrificed  on  the  altar 
and  not  an  animal.  The  oldest  account  of  the  Lord's  last 
supper  is  found  in  I.  Cor.  xi.  23  et  seq.,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that 
St.  Paul  neither  mentions  the  Paschal  Lamb  nor  the  wine. 


216      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

combination  is  decidedly  original  and  marks  the  be- 
ginning of  an  era  which,  at  least  in  the  West,  stands 
in  strong  contrast  to  all  the  ages  past. 

PARALLELISM   WITH    LAU-TSZE. 

Although  it  is  true  that  the  coincidences  between 
Buddhism  and  Christianity  are  remarkable  and 
numerous,  and  that  their  differences  are  easily  ac- 
counted for,  we  will  nevertheless  concede  that  both 
religions  may  have  originated  independently.  We 
possess  the  strange  case  of  a  similar  parallelism  to 
both  Buddhism  and  Christianity  in  Lau-tsze's  philo- 
sophy which  can  hardly  be  suspected  of  being  bor- 
rowed from  either.  We  quote  a  few  passages  from 
his  Tau  Teh  King,  which  was  written  more  than  five 
hundred  years  before  Christ,  and  almost  a  century 
before  Buddha.  The  Chinese  word  tau  bears  a 
peculiar  likeness  to  the  Greek  term  logos.  It  means 
"  word,"  "  reason,"  and  "  path  or  way  "  at  the  same 
time.  The  first  sentence  of  the  Tau  Teh  King 
reminds  us  of  the  first  verse  of  the  fourth  Gospel 
in  the  New  Testament,  and  many  other  passages 
breathe  the  spirit  of  Christian  ethics.  We  read  in 
the  Tau  Teh  Kiiig : 

"  The  Tau  (word,  reason,  path,  or  briefly  logos)  that  can  be 
tatted  (reasoned,  argued  with,  walked  on,  or  spoken)  is  not  the 
Eternal  Tau.  The  name  which  can  be  named  is  not  the 
Eternal  Name.  (Sec.  1.) 

"  Tau  produced  unity  ;  unity  produced  duality ;  duality 
produced  trinity ;  and  trinity  produced  all  things.  (Sec.  42.) 

"  Lay  hold  on  the  great  form  (of  Tau),  and  the  whole  world 
will  go  to  you.  (Sec,  34.) 


BUDDHISM   AND    CHRISTIANITY.  217 

"Tau,  in  its  passing  out  of  the  mouth,  is  weak  and  tasteless. 
If  you  look  at  it  there  is  nothing  to  fill  the  eye.  If  you  listen 
to  it,  there  is  nothing  to  fill  the  ear.  But  if  you  use  it,  it  is 
inexhaustible.  (Sec.  35.) 

' '  The  great  Tau  is  all-pervading.  It  can  be  on  the  right 
hand  and  also  at  the  same  time  on  the  left.  All  things  wait 
upon  it  for  life,  and  it  refuses  none.  When  its  meritorious 
work  is  done,  it  takes  not  the  name  of  merit.  In  love  it 
nourishes  all  things,  and  does  not  lord  over  them.  It  is  ever 
free  from  ambitious  desires.  It  may  be  named  with  the 
smallest.  All  things  return  home  to  it,  and  it  does  not  lord 
over  them.  It  may  be  named  with  the  greatest. 

"  This  is  how  the  wise  man,  to  the  last,  does  not  make  him- 
self great,  and  therefore  he  is  able  to  achieve  greatness. 
(Sec.  34.) 

if  Recompense  injury  with  goodness.     (Sec.  63.) 

"  The  Tau  of  Heaven  may  be  compared  to  the  extending  of 
a  bow.  It  lowers  that  which  is  high,  and  it  raises  that  which 
is  low.  (Sec.  77.) 

"  He  who  knows  others  is  wise.  He  who  knows  himself  is 
enlightened. 

"  He  who  conquers  others  is  strong.  He  who  conquers 
himself  is  mighty. 

"  He  who  knows  when  he  has  enough  is  rich.     (Sec.  33.) 

"  The  good  I  would  meet  with  goodness.  The  not-good  I 
would  also  meet  with  goodness.  Virtue  is  good.  The  faith- 
ful I  would  meet  with  faith.  The  not-faithful  I  would  also 
meet  with  faith.  Virtue  is  faithful.  (Sec.  49.) 

' '  He  that  humbles  (himself)  shall  be  preserved  entire.  He 
that  bends  (himself)  shall  be  straightened.  He  that  is  low 
shall  be  filled.  He  that  is  worn  out  shall  be  renewed.  He 
that  is  diminished  shall  succeed.  He  that  is  increased  shall 
be  misled.  Therefore  the  sage  embraces  Unity,  and  is  a  pat- 
tern for  all  the  world.  He  is  not  self-displaying,  and,  there- 
fore, he  shines.  He  is  not  self-approving,  and,  therefore,  he 
is  distinguished.  He  is  not  self -praising,  and,  therefore,  he 
has  merit.  He  is  not  self -exalting,  and,  therefore,  he  stands 
high."  (Sec.  22.) 


218      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

The  Buddhistic-Christian  spirit  of  Lau-tsze's  phi- 
losophy is  so  striking  that  the  suggestion  has  been 
made  to  trace  its  origin  to  the  same  sources  in  India 
from  which  Buddhism  has  sprung.  But  considering 
the  fact  that  Buddha  is  almost  a  hundred  years 
younger  than  Lau-tsze  this  assumption  is  barely 
possible,  not  probable.  And  must  we  not  grant  that 
the  Christian  ethics  if  true  may  naturally  develop  in 
any  country  and  in  any  age  ? 

NOTHING   AND   THE   ALL. 

There  are  many  remarkable  agreements  of  all 
kinds  which  are  due,  not  to  a  borrowing,  but  to  a 
similarity  of  the  circumstances  which  give  rise  to  an 
idea  or  an  event.  So  an  Indian  chief,  who  cannot 
be  suspected  of  ever  having  read  Caesar,  replied  to 
the  invitation  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 
in  almost  literally  the  same  terms  as  Ariovistus. 

Among  many  peculiar  coincidences  of  Buddhistic 
conceptions  with  ideas  of  thinkers  who  never  came 
in  contact  with  Buddhistic  traditions,  let  me  mention 
only  one.  Passerat,  a  late  Latin  poet  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  a  native  of  France,  (as  quoted  by  Charles 
F.  Neumann  in  his  Catechism  of  the  Shamans, 
London,  Oriental  Transl.  Fund,  1831)  says  in  one  of 
his  verses : 

"  Nihil  interitus  et  originis  expers 

Immortale  Nihil,  Nihil  omni  parte  beatum, 

Felix  cui  Nihil  est." 

This  expression,  praising  the  happiness  of  him  who 


BUDDHISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  219 

has  attained  "  the  Nothing  which  knows  the  begin- 
ning and  end  of  all  things,  the  immortal  nothing, 
which  is  blessed  throughout,"  would  be  natural  in 
the  mouth  of  a  Buddhist,  to  whom  the  word  conveys 
different  associations  than  to  us,  but  it  is  startling 
when  pronounced  by  a  poet  who  in  his  surroundings 
had  no  chance  of  hearing  the  praises  of  Nirvana. 

A   KEACTION   AGAINST    DUALISM. 

The  similarity  between  Christianity  and  Buddhism 
must,  at  least  to  some  extent,  be  due  to  a  similarity 
of  conditions.  And  such  a  similarity  of  conditions 
existed;  yet  here  again  we  have  good  reason  to 
believe  that  these  very  conditions  were  imported 
from  India.  If  Buddhism  was  not  directly  trans- 
planted to  Palestine,  it  still  remains  quite  probable 
that  the  seeds  at  least  from  which  it  sprang  were 
sown  by  Buddhists  in  the  soil  of  Galilee. 

The  main  basis  of  all  the  agreements  between 
Buddhism  and  Christianity  lies  in  their  similar  at- 
titude towards  a  dualistic  and  pessimistic  world- 
conception.  It  is  sufficiently  known  how  Buddhism 
developed  from  the  Samkhya  system,  and  there  can 
be  no  question  that  Christianity  presupposes  the 
prevalence  of  similar  ideas  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
among  whom  Jesus  Christ  lived  and  taught — not 
among  the  learned  only  but  among  the  multitudes- 

The  Essenes  formed  a  faction  among  the  Jews 
standing  in  opppsition  to  both  the  conservative  and 
old  orthodox  Pharisees  and  the  liberal  and  Hellen- 


220      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS    CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

ized  Sadducees.  All  that  is  known  about  the  Es- 
senes  reminds  us  of  Buddhistic  monk  fraternities 
and  Hindu  ascetics.  There  was  a  similar  movement 
in  those  days  among  the  learned  Jews  of  Alexandria, 
which  developed  into  Neo-Platonisrn,  represented 
mainly  by  Philo  (who  died  54  A.  D.),  Plotinus 
(205-270),  and  Porphyry  (232-304). 

Lassen  traces  Neo-Platonism  and  Gnosticism  back 
to  India,  and  Professor  Weber  suggests  the  deriva- 
tion of  the  Graeco-Christian  Logos-idea  from  the 
Indian  "  Vach  "  (i.  e.,  voice,  speech,  word),  calling 
attention  to  the  fact  that  the  divine  "  Vach,"  which 
in  Sanskrit  is  a  feminine  noun,  appears  in  numerous 
passages  as  the  consort  of  Prajapati,  the  Creator,  in 
union  with  whom  and  by  whom  he  accomplished  his 
creation.  Professor  Garbe,  in  his  remarkable  article 
in  The  Mbnist  (Vol.  IV.,  No.  2),  not  only  confirms 
these  suppositions,  but,  following  Leopold  von 
Schroeder's  suggestion,  offers  abundant  evidence  for 
the  derivation  of  Pythagoric  views  from  the  same 
source,  India,  which  thus  seems  to  have  been  the 
cradle  of  all  our  philosophies. 

Two  things  seem  certain,  to  which  heretofore  the 
attention  of  investigators  has  not  as  yet  been  called : 
that  gnosticism,  with  all  the  kindred  aspirations  of 
the  therapeutae  in  Egypt  and  the  Essenes  in  Pal- 
estine, is  a  pre-Christian  movement  which  prepared 
the  way  for  Jesus  as  well  as  for  the  missionary  work 
of  the  Apostle  St.  Paul  and  that  this  movement  was 
developed  from  seeds  that  had  drifted  into  the  West 
from  the  religious  life  of  India. 


BUDDHISM    AND   CHRISTIANITY.  221 

We  consider  the  hypothesis  of  a  historical  con- 
nexion between  Buddhism  and  Christianity  as  quite 
probable ;  yet  at  the  same  time  must  say  that 
whether  it  is  true  or  not  is  of  little  consequence. 
There  are  enough  parallels  concerning  which  we 
can  be  sure  that  they  are  not  due  to  a  borrowing, 
and  such  parallelism  alone  as  obtains  between  Lau- 
tsze  on  the  one  hand  and  Buddhism  and  Christianity 
on  the  other  hand,  is  sufficient  to  prove  that  the 
evolution  of  both  religions  may  have  taken  place 
independently,  according  to  a  natural  law. 

Whether  or  not  the  Samkhya  philosophy  and  its 
offshoot,  Buddhism,  were  transplanted  from  India 
to  the  Western  world,  we  find  that  the  Hindus  not 
less  than  the  Graeco-Judaean  thinkers  arrived  at 
a  crisis  in  their  religio-philosophical  evolution  in 
which  they  perceived  the  difference  between  soul 
and  body,  mind  and  matter,  spirituality  and  sense- 
appearing  reality.  This  difference  once  understood, 
leads  easily  to  wrong  conclusions.  Before  a  monis- 
tic solution  of  the  problem  is  sought,  the  dualistic 
view  naturally  presents  itself  first  to  a  superficial 
consideration  as  the  simpler  conception.  It  was 
quite  correct  to  regard  mind  as  the  all-import- 
ant element  of  man's  life,  but  it  was  a  mis- 
take, although  it  seemed  quite  plausible  by  way 
of  contrast,  to  look  upon  matter  as  the  source  of  all 
evil.  Thus  the  Samkhya  philosophers,  and,  in 
agreement  with  them,  the  Neo-Platonists,  believe  in 
the  existence  of  two  realities,  matter  and  soul  (or 
rather  souls,  for  they  assume  a  boundless  plurality 


222      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

of  individual  souls),  while  material  existence  is 
looked  upon  as  the  cause  of  all  misery  and  pain.  The 
body  is  said  to  be  that  which  hampers  the  mind  and 
imprisons  the  soul  as  in  a  dungeon,  while  spiritual 
existence,  or  that  which  produces  the  illumination 
of  consciousness  in  man,  is  praised  as  infinite  perfec- 
tion and  divine  bliss.  Thus  the  world  is  cut  in 
twain,  and  the  logical  consequence  of  this  dualism 
is  pessimism.  This  world  of  ours,  the  world  of 
bodily  existence  in  which,  as  they  say,  the  soul  is 
imprisoned,  is  a  domain  of  suffering  (note  here  also 
the  parallelism  with  Plato),  and  the  highest  aim  of 
human  exertion  must  be  salvation  from  the  bondage 
of  matter.  Hence  asceticism  and  self-mortification. 
The  death  of  the  body  was  longed  for  because  prom- 
ising the  liberation  of  the  soul.  Now  Buddha,  as 
well  as  Christ,  rejected  pessimistic  ethics ;  yet  it  is 
noteworthy  that  they  did  not  denounce  it  as  alto- 
gether wrong ;  they  only  forbade  the  enforcement 
of  it  among  their  disciples,  and  regarded  it  as  a 
lower  and  insufficient  method  of  attaining  salvation, 
or  rather  as  a  phase  through  which  he  who  seeks 
deliverance  must  pass.  They  themselves  had  passed 
through  it  and  rejected  it.  Therefore  they  suffered 
it  still,  but  boldly  disavowed  its  principles  in  their 
own  conduct 

Thus,  in  the  dualism  of  both  the  Samkhya  phi- 
losophy and  the  Essenic  ethics,  as  also  in  Neo-Platon- 
ism,  a-  great  truth,  the  idea  of  the  all-importance  of 
mind,  was  linked  to  fatal  errors,  viz.,  the  duality  of 
mind  and  matter,  the  fiction  of  a  purely  spiritual 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  223 

empire,  and  the  escape  from  the  material  world  to 
the  spirit  realm  through  the  suppression  and  gradual 
mortification — mortification  in  the  literal  sense  of 
the  word,  which  means  the  reducing  to  a  state  of 
being  dead — of  all  bodily  existence. 

Buddha  and  Christ  were  confronted  by  the  same 
dualism  and  facing  the  same  problem  of  salvation, 
solved  the  problem  in  the  same  way.  Both  aban- 
doned the  traditional  dualism  and  its  pessimistic 
applications.  After  having  tried  world-flight,  fasts, 
and  self-mortification,  they  gave  up  all  further 
attempts  at  uplifting  the  mind  by  a  vain  struggle 
against  the  body.  Yet  neither  Buddha  nor  Christ 
surrendered  the  truth  contained  in  the  dualism  of 
their  predecessors.  They  recognized  that  the  pur- 
pose of  life  lay  not  in  the  sphere  of  material  reality, 
but  in  the  realm  of  mind  ;  that  the  life  is  more  than 
meat,  and  that  all  worldly  goods  serve  only  as  means 
for  our  spiritual  needs.  As  to  the  problem  of  evil, 
they  surrendered  the  dualistic  method  of  deliverance 
through  asceticism  for  a  monistic  ethics  of  righteous- 
ness. Both  Buddha  and  Christ  found  that  the  source 
of  sin  lay  deeper  than  in  the  complications  of  mind 
with  matter ;  that  material  existence  is  innocent  of 
wrong-doing,  and  that  mind  alone  makes  or  mars 
the  world.  Lust,  vanity,  and  hatred  do  not  reside 
in  the  objects  of  our  senses,  but  in  our  hearts.  A 
wrong-directed  mind  is  the  source  of  sin,  and  a  puri- 
fication of  the  mind  from  its  sinful  desires  is  the  sole 
condition  of  salvation.  Accordingly,  both  Buddha 
and  Christ  abandoned  world-flight  and  self-mortifi- 


224      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

cation ;  they  both  returned  to  the  world  and  gave 
offence  to  those  who  were  still  under  the  sway  of 
a  dualistic  morality ;  they  lived  among  the  people, 
preaching  the  new  way  of  salvation  and  the  attain- 
ment of  the  kingdom  of  heaven  that  is  within  us. 

In  saying  that  Buddha  and  Christ  abandoned  the 
ethics  of  dualism  and  proposed  a  new  system  of 
morality  that  might  properly  be  designated  as  mo- 
nistic, we  do  not  maintain  that  either  Buddha  or 
Christ  taught  a  monistic  philosophy.  Neither 
Buddha  nor  Christ  were  philosophers,  although  the 
former  can  be  called  a  philosopher  with  more  pro- 
priety than  the  latter.  Both  were  religious  leaders  ; 
Christ  more  so  than  Buddha.  Buddhism  and  Chris- 
tianity are  religions  and  not  philosophies  ;  yet  from 
their  first  appearance  when  their  founders  began  to 
preach  the  new  doctrine,  they  ushered  in  an  era  of 
monistic  thought.  By  discarding  pessimistic  prin- 
ciples and  proposing  a  melioristic  morality  they  led 
the  way  towards  a  monistic  world-conception.  The 
philosophy  underlying  their  religious  faith  already 
shows  a  monistic  trend. 

As  religions  are  slowly  expanding  and  developing 
in  the  course  of  their  evolution,  so  they  cannot  have 
originated  without  due  preparation.  Their  growtli 
is  due  to  natural  causes  and  takes  place  according 
to  natural  laws.  St.  Paul  is  generally  considered  as 
the  founder  of  the  Gentile  Church ;  however,  the 
existence  of  a  Christian  congregation  in  Eome  to 
which  he  addresses  the  most  important  one  of  his 
epistles,  is  alone  an  undeniable  evidence  that  he  was 


BUDDHISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  225 

one  only  among  many  missionaries  of  the  new  faith, 
Apollos,  it  is  said  in  Acts  xviii.  24,  "  taught  dili- 
gently the  things  of  the  Lord,  knowing  only  the 
baptism  of  John,"  and  Paul  coming  to  Ephesus, 
found  "certain  disciples  who  had  not  so  much  as 
heard  whether  there  was  a  Holy  Ghost "  and  were 
baptized  unto  John's  baptism.*  This  is  noteworthy. 
It  proves  that  there  were  at  that  time,  when  Chris- 
tian missionaries  began  to  preach,  Christian-like 
congregations  who  differed  but  slightly  from  those 
baptized  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  not  im- 
possible that  such  communities  of  so-called  "  disci- 
ples "  (which  was  also  the  name  of  the  first  Christians) 
were  scattered,  even  in  the  life-time  of  Christ,  over 
the  whole  Roman  empire  ;  in  other  words,  the  germs 
of  Christianity  existed  before  Paul  organized  them 
into  Christian  churches. 

As  the  Gentile  Church  originated  before  Paul,  so 
a  pre-Christian  Christianity  must  have  begun  to 
grow  before  Jesus.  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  is  an 
exponent  of  this  spirit.  He  was  in  many  respects 
similar  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  the  legends  which 
his  piotis  admirers  told  of  his  life  bear  so  much  re- 
semblance to  the  Christian  Gospels  and  Apocrypha 
that  Christian  fanatics  have  jealously  destroyed  the 
greatest  part  of  them.f  In  a  similar  way  Buddhism 

*  Acts  xix.  1-2. 

f  "  After  his  death  Apollonius  was  worshipped  with  divine 
honors  for  a  period  of  four  centuries.  A  temple  was  raised 
to  him  at  Tyana,  which  obtained  from  the  Romans  the  immu- 
nities of  a  sacred  city.  His  statue  was  placed  among  those  of 
'5 


226      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

developed  in  India  on  parallel  lines  with  Jainisra. 
If  Gautama  Siddhartha  had  not  appeared,  Jnyata- 
putra,  the  founder  of  Jainism,  might  have  taken  his 
place.  Vice  versa,  if  Buddhism  which  had  grown 
so  much  more  powerful  than  Jainism,  had  not  been 
rooted  out  in  India,  might  not  Jainism  have  been 
absorbed  by  it  so  as  to  disappear  entirely  ?  And  if 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  had  not  become  the  Christ  of  the 
Western  world,  might  not  Apollonius  have  played 
a  similar  part  in  history  ?  We  do  not  mean  to  say 
that  Apollonius  was  nearly  as  grand  or  sympathetic 
a  figure  as  Jesus,  we  only  say  that  his  character  was 
of  that  type  from  which  mankind  would  be  inclined 
to  select  their  Christs,  their  Buddhas,  their  Saviours. 
He  was  in  many  respects  suitable  to  serve  as  a  centre 
of  religious  crystallization,  and  the  sacred  legends 
would  have  so  moulded  his  personality  as  to  make 
of  him  an  incarnation  of  the  highest  moral  ideal  of 
the  age.  In  other  words,  if  Jesus  had  not  appeared, 
we  might  have  substantially  the  same  religion. 

EVOLUTION    IN   RELIGION. 

It  is  the  habit  of  all  religious  devotees  to  look 

the  gods,  and  his  name  was  invoked  as  a  being  possessed  of 
superhuman  powers,  The  defenders  of  paganism,  at  the  period 
of  its  decline,  placed  the  life  and  miracles  of  Apollonius  in 
rivalry  with  those  of  Christ;  and  some  moderns  have  not 
hesitated  to  make  the  same  comparison.  There  is  no  reason 
to  suppose,  however,  that  Philostratus  entertained  any  idea 
of  this  sort  in  composing  his  life  of  Apollonius." — End.  Brit., 
Vol.  II.,  p.  189. 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  227 

upon  their  religion  as  a  fixed  dogma.  So  many  Bud- 
dhists imagine  that  true  Buddhism  consists  in  the 
teachings  of  Gautama  Buddha,  and  Christians  in  the 
same  way  trust  that  the  whole  breadth  and  depth 
of  Christianity  was  developed  by  Jesus  Christ  in  his 
sermons,  parables,  and  the  example  he  set  in  his  life. 
This  is  not  so.  Buddha  and  Christ  were  the  founders, 
the  one  of  Buddhism,  the  other  of  Christianity.  It 
may  be  true  that  the  most  important  features  of  both 
religions  can  be  traced  to  their  personal  authority, 
but  there  are  many  phases  in  the  development  of 
mankind  (so,  for  instance,  the  abolition  of  slavery) 
which  were  not  thought  of  at  the  time  either  of 
Buddha  or  Christ.  Neither  Buddha  nor  Christ  gave 
us  in  their  sermons  a  rule  for  dealing  with  the  slave 
problem ;  yet  we  can  truly  say  that  their  spirit  of 
brotherly  love  was  a  most  important  factor  in  its 
final  solution.  The  development  of  Christianity 
was  not  completed  with  Christ's  crucifixion,  nor 
was  Buddhism  completed  at  Buddha's  death  ;  both 
continued  to  grow  and  to  work  out  the  problems 
of  life  in  the  spirit  in  which  their  founders  had  set 
the  example.  They  are  still  growing,  and  we  must 
be  careful  not  to  judge  them  according  to  the  past 
alone,  but  consider  the  life  that  is  in  them  now  and 
also  their  future  potentialities. 

Buddhism  and  Christianity  have  not  only  devel- 
oped the  germs  which  were  sown  by  their  founders, 
but  have  also  assimilated  the  religious  experiences 
of  other  nations. 

The  original  Christianity  of  the  church  at  Jeru- 


228      BUDDHISM   AND    ITS    CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

salem  changed  when  it  spread  over  the  Roman 
empire ;  and  it  changed  again  when  introduced 
among  the  Teutonic  races  of  the  North.  Our  pres- 
ent Christianity,  for  instance,  contains  more  of  the 
Teutonic  race  ethics  than  many  of  us,  especially  our 
clergy,  are  aware  of  and  is  very  different,  indeed, 
from  the  original  Christianity  of  the  communistic 
church  at  Jerusalem.  Buddhism,  too,  has  under- 
gone changes.  The  Hinayana  of  southern  Buddhism 
is  marked  by  a  certain  negativism,  while  the  Maha- 
yana  of  northern  Buddhism  makes  the  positive  aspect 
of  the  Dharma  and  of  Nirvana  more  prominent. 
Among  the  Tibetans  this  tendency  of  the  Mahayana 
doctrines  has  developed  a  fantastic  mythology  and 
the  ecclesiastical  institutions  of  Lamaism,  while  the 
more  sober  Japanese  appear  to  be  quite  scholarly 
and  freer  from  superstition. 

THE    SUPERNATUKAL   IN   THE    NATURAL. 

Taking  it  for  granted  that  Buddhism  and  Chris- 
tianity have  not  influenced  each  other  and  are  of 
independent  growth,  their  similarities  will  have  to 
be  regarded  as  the  more  remarkable,  since  they  will 
then  all  the  more  render  a  special  revelation  theory 
redundant.  They  are  a  most  powerful  argument  for 
a  sweeping  latitudinarianism,  and  will,  if  properly 
understood,  crush  the  last  remnant  of  sectarianism 
in  Christianity.  Shall  we  say  that  the  injunctions : 
"  Recompense  injury  with  goodness,"  and  "  hatred 
does  not  cease  by  hatred ;  hatred  ceases  by  love," 


BUDDHISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY.  229 

have  naturally  developed  the  one  in  China  and  the 
other  in  India,  while  the  same  lofty  moral  thought 
could  be  attained  in  Judaea  only  through  a  supernat- 
ural revelation?  No,  the  supernatural  will  develop 
everywhere  according  to  the  eternal  laws  of  nature. 

The  sky,  in  old  folk-lore  tales,  is  conceived  as  a 
glassy  bowl  that  covers  the  earth,  and  the  Indians 
imagine  themselves  favored  by  Manitoo,  the  Great 
Spirit,  who  located  them  under  the  very  top  of  the 
heavens.  Let  us  not  imitate  their  narrow-minded- 
ness by  believing  that  we  alone  are  blessed  with  the 
zenith  of  a  religious  revelation.  God  spoke  not 
through  Moses  alone  nor  through  Jesus  alone.  God 
has  left  no  one  Avithout  a  witness,  and  he  speaks  to 
every  one  of  his  children  in  the  same  way,  if  they 
but  open  their  minds  to  perceive  his  revelation.  The 
Zenith  is  over  the  heads  of  every  one  who  raises  his 
eyes  to  look  up  to  it,  and  there  is  no  part  of  nature 
but  it  contains  the  supernatural.  The  natural  is 
supernatural  all  through.  Thus  we  need  not  wonder 
that  the  foundation-stones  of  Buddhism  and  Chris- 
tianity are  the  same ;  they  are  of  a  universal  nature. 

We  deny  the  existence  of  the  supernatural  in  a 
dualistic  sense ;  but  suppose  we  call  such  higher 
features  of  nature  as  appear  in  man's  ethical  aspira- 
tions hyperphysical  or  supernatural  because  they 
rise  above  the  lower  and  purely  physical  elements  of 
the  universe,  we  must  confess  that  the  supernatural 
lies  hidden  in  the  natural  and  is  destined  to  grow 
from  it  according  to  the  cosmic  laws  of  existence. 
All  living  creatures  face  the  same  universe  and  are 


230      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

confronted  with  the  same  problems  of  life  ;  must  we 
not,  in  the  end,  all  come  to  the  same  conclusions, 
and,  however  different  may  be  the  modes  of  present- 
ing them,  adopt  the  same  rules  of  conduct  ?  In  the 
light  of  a  unitary  world-conception  the  agreement 
between  various  religions  ceases  to  be  startling  and 
finds,  even  on  the  assumption  that  they  have  devel- 
oped quite  independently,  its  natural  explanation. 
Yea,  we  are  justified  in  assuming  that  if  there  are 
beings  on  other  planets,  they,  too,  will  develop  in 
the  course  of  their  religious  evolution  a  religion  of 
deliverance  from  evil  by  the  eradication  of  all  self- 
hood with  its  vanity,  lust  and  hatred,  and  by  walking 
in  the  noble  path  of  righteousness.  Among  them, 
too,  a  saviour  will  rise  to  bid  them  renounce  their 
self  and  all  selfishness,  and  to  take  refuge  from  the 
evils  of  existence  in  an  all-embracing  love. 

HINA.YANA,    MAHAYANA,    MAHASETU. 

Eecognizing  a  continued  evolution  in  the  religions 
of  mankind,  we  do  not  look  upon  later  Buddhism 
with  the  same  contempt  as  is  customary  among 
many  Buddhist  scholars.  It  is  true  that  the  old 
Buddhism  of  the  Hinayana  school  has  preserved  the 
old  traditions  more  faithfully  and  is  more  philoso- 
phical than  religious,  while  the  Mahayana  school 
which  now  obtains  in  the  North,  especially  in  Thibet, 
in  China,  and  in  Japan,  is  more  religious  than  philo- 
sophical, almost  hiding  Buddha's  doctrines  under 
an  exuberant  outgrowth  of  fantastical  superstitions. 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  231 

We  must,  nevertheless,  recognize  in  this  progress 
from  the  Hinayana,  or  the  small  vehicle  of  salvation, 
to  the  Mahayana,  or  large  vehicle  of  salvation,  an 
advance  in  the  right  direction.  Buddha  had  taught 
his  disciples  the  path  of  salvation  and  had  inculcated 
an  unbounded  love  for  all  mankind,  including  one's 
enemies.  It  was  quite  natural  that  his  followers 
were  anxious  to  extend  the  blessings  of  salvation 
to  all  mankind.  The  Hinayana  is  a  religion  for  the 
thinker,  for  the  wise,  for  the  strong;  it  is  not  a 
gospel  to  those  who  are  poor  in  spirit,  who  are 
ignorant,  who  are  weak ;  and  yet  it  was  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  Master's  all-comprehensive  compassion 
to  save  all  the  world !  What  was  more  natural  to  a 
true-hearted  Buddhist  than  to  make  the  blessing  of 
Buddha's  religion  accessible  to  the  multitudes  ?  The 
small  canoe  of  the  Hinayana  sufficed  for  every  one 
only  to  save  himself  and  no  one  else.  But  what  did  a 
Buddhist  care  for  his  own  salvation  ?  A  true  Bud- 
dhist had  ceased  to  be  troubled  about  himself.  He 
wanted  to  save  others.  Thus  the  general  idea  of 
a  Mahayana,  a  large  conveyance  of  salvation,  of  a 
great  ship  to  cross  the  stream  of  worldliness,  of 
sin,  and  suffering,  was  a  logical  consequence  of 
Buddha's  doctrine,  even  though  the  methods  with 
which  this  idea  was  realized  may  in  many  respects  be 
regarded  as  a  failure.  Yet  in  judging  the  Mahayana 
system  and  its  fantastical  offshoots,  we  must  con- 
sider the  mental  state  of  those  nations  for  whom  it 
was  adapted,  and  it  may  be  that  a  purer  religion 
would  have  failed  utterly  where  cruder  allegories  of 


232      BUDDHISM    AND   ITS    CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

what  appears  to  us  as  childish  superstitions  exercised 
a  beneficent  influence.  The  Mahayana  has  changed 
the  savage  hordes  of  central  Asia,  from  whom  pro- 
ceeded the  most  barbarous  invaders,  dreaded  by  all 
their  neighbors,  into  a  most  kind-hearted  people,  with 
a  sacred  passion  for  universal  benevolence  and 
charity. 

Considering  the  development  from  a  Hinayana 
conception  to  a  Mahayana  practice  as  an  advance, 
we  can  still  less  regard  Christianity,  even  if  its  deri- 
vation from  Buddhism  were  certain,  as  a  deteriora- 
tion. Buddhism,  viz.,  the  original  Buddhism  of 
Buddha,  is  more  philosophical  and  more  abstract 
than  Christianity,  but  Christianity  is  more  religious. 
Buddhism,  viz.,  again,  the  original  Buddhism  of 
Buddha,  is  free  from  all  mythological  elements  while 
Christianity  employs  a  number  of  allegorical  ex- 
pressions which  are  both  appropriate  and  forcible. 
There  is  the  dogma  of  the  personality  of  God,  of  the 
Sonship  of  Christ  of  the  quickening  influence  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  of  the  personality  of  Satan,  of  angels 
and  devils,  of  heaven  and  hell ;  and  even  to-day  the 
belief  in  the  literal  meaning  of  all  these  religious 
symbols  is  counted  among  many  Christians  as  the 
test  of  orthodoxy.  A  belief  in  the  letter  replaces 
the  belief  in  the  spirit.  But  what  does  it  matter  that 
during  the  development  of  the  Church  the  letter  of 
symbolically  expressed  truth,  has  crystallized  into 
temporarily  fixed  dogmas,  which  sometimes  threat- 
ened to  ossify  the  properly  religious  spirit  of  Chris- 
tianity 3  The  symbolism  of  Christianity  is  after  all 


BUDDHISM  AND   CHRISTIANITY.  233 

its  dross  only  ;  its  essence  is  that  ethical  spirit  which 
it  has  in  common  with  Buddhism.  The  Christian 
dogmatology,  if  properly  recognized  in  its  symbolical 
nature,  is  most  beautiful,  expressive,  and  true,  but 
if  taken  in  its  literal  meaning  commits  us  to  irra- 
tional absurdities.  He  who  believes  in  the  letter  of 
a  myth,  or  a  dogma,  or  a  religious  allegory,  is  a  pagan, 
and  Christian  paganism  is  not  less  absurd  than 
Lamaistic  or  any  other  paganism.  Nevertheless,  he 
who  believes  in  a  myth  that  contains  in  the  garb  of 
a  parable  a  religious  truth,  and  accordingly  regulates 
his  moral  conduct,  is  better  off  than  he  who  is  void  of 
any  faith.  The  truth  hidden  in  the  myth  teaches  him 
and  serves  him  as  a  guide ;  it  comforts  him  in  affliction, 
strengthens  him  in  temptation,  and  shows  him  in  an  al- 
legorical reflexion  the  bliss  that  rests  upon  righteous- 
ness. The  Hinayana,  in  its  abstractness,  it  appears  to 
us,  is  indeed  insufficient  for  the  masses  of  mankind,  and 
had  to  change  into  a  Mahayana  system  before  it  could 
conquer  almost  half  the  world.  Christianity,  how- 
ever, is  more  perfect  even  than  the  Mahayana  of  Bud- 
dhism, as  a  vehicle  of  salvation  for  the  masses  of  man- 
kind. "While  the  schools  of  Buddhism  may  be  com- 
pared to  ships  that  cross  the  stream,  Christianity  is 
like  a  large  and  solid  bridge.  Christianity  is  a  Maha- 
setu.  A  child  may  walk  over  in  perfect  safety. 
Christianity  is,  as  St.  Augustine  says,  like  a  water  in 
which  a  lamb  can  wade  while  an  elephant  must  swim. 
It  is  difficult  to  explain  spiritual  truths  to  an  un- 
trained mind,  for  even  philosophers  find  it  difficult  to 
understand  why  we  must  free  our  souls  from  the 


234      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS    CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

thought  of  self  and  overcome  all  vanity,  lust,  hatred, 
and  illwill.  But  a  young  Christian  heart  finds  it  very 
natural.  "Without  going  through  all  the  painful  ex- 
periences which  lead  to  the  abandonment  of  selfish- 
ness, a  Christian  child  having  received  Jesus  and  his 
all-comprehensive  love  into  his  heart  is,  on  the  start 
of  his  life,  placed  in  the  right  moral  attitude  towards 
the  world.  Christianity  (and  this  is  both  its  strength 
and  its  weakness)  has  been  especially  successful 
in  teaching  surrender  of  self  without  at  the  same 
time  disturbing  the  egotism  so  strongly  developed 
in  the  "Western  nations.  Thus  Christianity  ex- 
tends religious  bliss  not  only  to  the  ignorant  who 
do  not  understand  the  problem  of  life  of  which 
Christian  ethics  present  a  practical  solution,  but  also 
to  those  whose  eyes  remain  still  covered  with  the 
veil  of  selfhood ;  yea,  even  to  the  little  children  who 
have  never  as  yet  heard  of  sin  or  the  cause  of  sin. 
There  is  no  more  characteristic  saying  of  Christ's 
than  his  words :  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come  unto 
me." 

No  fault  can  be  found  either  with  Christianity  or 
the  symbols  of  Christianity,  but  blame  rests  with 
those  who  claim  that  the  Christian  symbols  do  not 
merely  contain  the  truth  in  the  language  of  parables, 
but  that  they  are  the  truth  itself,  the  absolute  truth 
which  must  be  accepted  in  blind  faith  whatever  be 
the  verdict  of  a  rational  inquiry  or  scientific  criticism. 
The  Christian  whose  faith  consists  in  obedience  to 
the  spirit  of  Christ's  ethics  can  shake  hands  with  the 
Buddhist  and  say,  we  are  brethren  ;  our  religions 


BUDDHISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  235 

solve  the  problems  of  life  in  a  similar  spirit,  although 
we  differ  in  our  modes  of  expression.  The  Christian, 
however,  whose  faith  is  a  belief  in  the  letter  of  his 
dogmas  will  regard  the  Buddhist,  be  he  ever  so 
highly  educated,  as  a  pagan  and  Buddha  as  a  false 
prophet  or  even  "  an  impostor."  *  The  latter  kind 
of  Christianity  is  still  regarded  as  orthodox,  but 
the  time  will  come  and  is  near  at  hand  when  its 
flagrant  paganism  will  be  recognized  by  the  very 
authorities  of  the  Church.  The  former  kind  of 
Christianity  will  be  established  as  the  only  true 
Christianity,  and  the  old  narrow  orthodoxy  of  bigotry 
and  blind  faith  will  be  supplanted  by  the  new  broad 
orthodoxy  of  scientific  truth. 

Christianity,  at  present  the  second  largest  religion 
in  the  world,  can  very  well  become  the  universal  re- 
ligion of  mankind,  but  there  is  one  condition  which 
must  be  fulfilled  before  it  can  gain  the  victory.  It 
must  discard  all  paganism  ;  it  must  become  conscious 
of  the  symbolical  element  of  its  symbols ;  it  must 
with  impartial  justice  recognize  the  truth  wherever 
it  be  ;  it  must  be  courageous  enough  to  acknowledge 
its  own  errors  of  former  misinterpretations,  and  ap- 
preciate the  good  that  is  contained  in  other  religions  ; 
in  a  word,  it  must  become  a  cosmic  religion — truly 
catholic  and  orthodox. 

"What  is  more  orthodox  than  that  which  with 
methodical  exactness  has  been  proved  to  be  true, 
and  what  is  more  catholic  than  science  ?  We  must 

*  See  Spence  Hardy  in  his  Legends  and  Theories  of  the  Bud- 
dhists, p.  207. 


236      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

learn  to  understand  that  science  is  a  religious  rev- 
elation. 

This,  in  essence,  is  the  lesson  which  a  comparison 
of  Buddhism  with  Christianity  can  teach  us  :  Above 
any  Hinayana,  Mahayana  and  Mahasetu  is  the  Re- 
ligion of  Truth,  and  the  truth  reveals  itself  every- 
where, to  every  one  who  has  the  religious  spirit  to 
seek  it,  and  dares  to  find  it. 


CHRISTIAN  CRITICS  OF  BUDDHISM. 

THE    MISSIONARY    PROBLEM. 

MISSIONS  are  highly  recommendable.  They  are  in 
themselves  a  good  thing  and  ought  to  be  continued 
with  vigor  and  enthusiasm.  That  religion  is  dead 
which  does  not  missionarize.  No  worse  objection 
can  be  made  to  the  free-thinkers  of  to-day,  who  fre- 
quently boast  of  representing  the  world-conception 
of  the  cultured  and  the  intelligent,  than  their  utter 
want  of  the  missionarizing  spirit.  Free  thought 
can  become  worthy  of  consideration  only  when  it 
begins  to  missionarize.  So  long  as  free-thinkers  do 
not  bring  sacrifices  for  a  wide  propagation  of  their 
views  their  faith  is  plainly  of  a  negative  kind.  A 
positive  faith  always  engenders  an  enthusiasm  to 
spread  it.  Missionarizing,  far  from  being  "  iJl-judged 
and  unreasonable  "  is  a  sure  symptom  of  the  life  that 
is  in  a  religion.  But  while  missions  ought  to  be  en- 
couraged, we  ought  to  spread  at  the  same  time  the 
right  spirit  of  missionarizing. 

The  missionary  who  wants  to  spread  his  faith 
must  not  revile  the  people  whom  he  wants  to  con- 
vert. He  must  not  distort  nor  misrepresent  their 
religious  views,  and  not  unnecessarily  desecrate 

237 


238      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

what  is  sacred  to  them.  There  are  Christians  among 
whom  the  opinion  prevails  that  the  good  qualities 
of  pagan  religions  are  an  obstacle  to  Christianity. 
"Whenever  such  views  obtain  it  is  a  sure  sign  that 
the  right  missionary  spirit  is  missing.  Let  a  mis- 
sionary always  look  for  the  good  sides  of  other  re- 
ligions, and  let  him  carefully  search  for  all  the  points 
of  contact.  Only  by  utilizing  the  good  in  paganism, 
only  by  gaining  the  sympathy  of  the  pagans,  can 
Christianity  hope  to  conquer. 

When  St.  Paul  came  to  Athens  he  did  not  revile 
the  Greek  gods.  On  the  contrary,  he  looked  for 
some  point  of  contact,  and  found  it  at  last  in  an  in- 
scription written  upon  the  altar  dedicated  to  the 
Unknown  God.  Praising  the  scrupulous  and  con- 
scientious religiosity  of  the  Athenians,  he  proceeded 
to  preach  to  them  the  Unknown  God  whom  they 
had  unwittingly  worshipped. 

There  is  a  papal  brief  still  extant  written  by  Greg- 
ory the  Great,  in  the  year  601,  and  addressed  to  the 
missionary  monk  Augustine,  in  which  the  policy  of 
a  very  ingenious  method  of  missionarizing  is  out- 
lined. The  Pope  was  apparently  a  practical  psy- 
chologist who  knew  how  to  treat  men  and  make 
innovations  acceptable.  Whatever  criticism  may  be 
made  on  the  Pope's  advice  as  being  a  kind  of  com- 
promise with  paganism,  it  certainly  shows  great 
keenness  and  good  judgment.  The  success  of  his 
missionaries  in  England  was  a  good  evidence  of  the 
cleverness  of  his  methods.  Churches  were  built  right 
on  the  shrines  and  sanctuaries  of  the  old  gods,  and 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS    OF   BUDDHISM.  239 

the  pagan  festivals  were  continued  under  Christian 
names.     Pope  Gregory  says  : 

"Because  they  (the  Anglo-Saxons)  are  wont  to  slaughter 
at  the  feasts  of  the  devils  (i.  e.,  of  the  pagan  gods)  many 
oxen  and  horses,  it  is  decidedly  necessary  to  let  these  feasts 
be  continued  and  have  another  raison  d'etre  given  them.  On 
kirmess  and  on  the  commemoration  days  of  the  holy  martyrs, 
whose  relics  are  preserved  in  those  churches  which  are  built 
on  the  spots  of  pagan  fanes,  a  similar  feast  shall  be  cele- 
brated ;  the  festive  place  shall  be  decorated  with  green 
boughs  and  a  church  sociable  shall  be  held.  Only  the  slaugh- 
ter of  animals  shall  no  longer  be  held  in  honor  of  Satan,  but 
in  praise  of  God,  and  the  animals  shall  be  slaughtered  for  the 
sake  of  eating  them,  and  thanks  shall  be  given  for  the  gift  to 
the  Giver  of  all  goods."  * 

Gregory  advises  not  to  destroy  the  pagan  temples, 
but  to  transform  them  into  churches.  He  urges  the 
adoption,  as  much  as  possible,  of  pagan  rites,  and 
the  substitution  of  the  names  of  saints  for  the  names 
of  heroes  and  gods.  In  the  same  spirit  Bishop 
Daniel  writes  to  Winfrid,  commonly  called  Boniface 
(Epist.  xiv.,  99),  to  be  tolerant,  patient,  and  to  avoid 
all  objurgation  lest  the  pagans  be  embittered.  "  A 
missionary  should  not  at  once  repudiate  the  gene- 
alogies of  the  gods,  but  should  rather  use  them  to 
prove  their  human  character.  He  should  propose 
questions  which  would  set  the  pagans  to  thinking 
about  the  origin  of  the  world  and  the  origin  of  the 
gods,  whence  the  gods  came  and  what  be  the  origin 
of  the  first  god,  whether  they  continue  to  generate 

*See  Beda  Venerabilis,  Hist.  Eccles.  Britorum,  I.,  Chap.  30. 


240      BUDDHISM    AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

new  gods,  and,  if  not,  when  they  had  discontinued 
increasing,  and,  if  they  continued  increasing,  whether 
their  number  would  by-and-by  be  infinite." 

Leo  the  Great  utilized  the  pagan  art  of  Rome  for 
Christian  art.  He  changed  the  statue  of  Jupiter 
into  St.  Peter,  and  the  goddess  Anna  Perenna  be- 
came St.  Anna  Petronela,  who  is  still  worshipped  in 
the  Campagna.  And  the  Christian  missionaries 
imitated  the  Pope's  method.  The  Teutonic  eschat- 
ology  of  Muspilli,  which  is  the  destruction  of  the 
world  by  fire,  was  Christianized  by  German  converts 
in  a  poem  where  Elijah  and  other  saints  and  arch- 
angels take  the  place  of  the  Teutonic  gods,  whose 
original  features  are  unmistakably  preserved. 

This  method  of  missionarizing  had  its  serious 
drawbacks,  and  led  for  a  time  to  a  great  confusion 
of  Christian  and  pagan  beliefs.  Thus  the  Danish 
king,  Suen  Tuesking,  when  starting  on  an  expedition 
to  England,  made  a  treble  vow  to  the  god  Bragafull, 
to  Christ,  and  to  St.  Michael.  And  we  read  of 
Ketil,  an  Irish  warrior,  who  in  all  ordinary  cases 
called  upon  Christ,  but  whenever  there  was  a  matter 
of  grave  importance  he  addressed  himself  to  Thor.* 
It  is  true  that  many  pagan  institutions  and  customs 
survived,  but  after  all  in  the  long  run  the  evil  influ- 
ences were  overcome,  and  the  good  only  remained. 
A  pagan  festival,  the  Yuletide,  has  now  become  the 
most  celebrated  Christian  feast,  bearing  the  name 
Christmas,  and  Christianity  was  not  the  loser  by  it. 

I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  Christian  missionaries 

*Roskoff,  Geschichte  des  Teufels,Vol.  II.,  pp.  10-13. 


CHRISTIAN    CRITICS    OP    BUDDHISM.  241 

should  temporize  with  heathen  error  or  compromise 
with  heathen  institutions ;  not  at  all ;  I  only  mean 
to  say  that  Christian  missionaries  should  not  imitate 
St.  Augustine's  maxim,  who  regarded  all  virtues  of 
the  pagans  as  shining  vices,  but  that  they  should 
joyously  recognize  and  hail  everything  good  in 
pagan  religions.  I  simply  stand  up  for  rigid  justice, 
and  would  demand  of  every  missionary  a  sympa- 
thetic comprehension  of  that  religion  which  the 
people  to  whom  he  is  sent  have  embraced. 

Are  there  not  many  institutions,  moral  convictions, 
habits  and  modes  of  thought  in  pagan  countries 
which  are  unnecessarily  antagonized  by  our  mission- 
aries ?  Should  not  Christian  missionaries,  in  order 
to  be  successful,  first  of  all  have  regard  for  the 
religious  views  which  they  intend  to  overthrow? 
Should  they  not  recognize  the  noble  aspirations  of 
pagan  saints  and  prophets,  such  as  Buddha  and 
Confucius  ?  It  would  be  better  for  Christianity  if 
the  pagan  nations  themselves  began  to  send  mis- 
sionaries to  Christian  countries.  For  there  is 
nothing  more  spiritually  healthful  than  a  severe 
competition  among  those  who  cherish  the  confidence 
of  having  found  the  truth. 

We  regret  to  say  that  the  spirit  in  which  the  mis- 
sionary addresses  unbelievers  is,  upon  the  whole, 
offensive.  He  comes  to  non-Christians  like  an 
enemy  who  wants  to  destroy  that  which  they  regard 
as  the  highest  and  best,  and  the  result  is  that  they 
only  gain  converts  of  the  lowest  type,  who  become 
converted  solely  for  the  sake  of  worldly  advantages 
16 


242     BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

and  are  a  disgrace  to  the  religion  to  which  they  be- 
come affiliated. 

The  proper  spirit  for  a  missionary  would  be  to 
go  to  unbelievers,  to  reside  among  them  in  their  own 
style  of  living  and  give  them  a  practical  example  of 
his  views  of  life.  He  should  go  to  other  countries 
and  inquire  into  the  significance  of  the  people's  reli- 
gious convictions.  He  should  say  to  them,  "The 
people  of  our  country  are  interested  in  your  welfare 
and  in  your  conceptions  of  truth.  Please  let  me 
know  what  you  believe,  and  when  you  have  told  me 
what  you  believe  I  will,  if  you  are  willing  to  listen 
to  me,  tell  you  what  we  believe.  We  believe  that 
we  are  right  and  you  believe  that  you  are  right.  Let 
us  compare  our  views,  and  whatever  I  can  learn  from 
you  I  wish  to  learn,  and,  vice  versa,  I  expect  that 
whatever  you  can  learn  from  me  you  will  consider, 
and,  whatever  the  truth  may  be,  we  shall  both  be 
glad  to  accept  it."  If  missionaries  come  in  this 
spirit  to  other  countries  Christianity  will  no  longer 
be  identified  with  beef  eating  in  China  and  with 
liquor  drinking  in  India.  There  would  be  no  perse- 
cution. Missionaries  could  without  fear  of  danger 
enter  into  the  remotest  corners  of  China.  They 
would  not  be  hated,  but  would  be  welcomed,  and  we 
hope  that  a  time  will  come  when  all  religions  will 
exchange  missionaries  in  the  same  way  that  the  gov- 
ernment of  our  nation  sends  ambassadors  to  other 
nations  and  in  turn  receives  their  representatives. 

The  reason  why  the  Christian  missions  of  the 
present  day  are,  upon  the  whole,  a  lamentable  fail- 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  243 

ure,  is  due  mainly  to  the  haughtiness  with  which 
Christ's  religion  is  offered  to  the  pagans.  Christians 
are  so  deeply  impressed  with  Christ's  humility  that 
they  are  not  aware  of  the  pride  which  they  them- 
selves exhibit.  There  is,  for  instance,  a  missionary 
hymn  whose  melodious  rhymes  are  frequently  heard 
in  Christian  churches.  The  verses  are  beautiful, 
but  they  are  marred  by  an  undisguised  contempt 
for  the  heathen  ;  yet  no  missionary  seems  aware  of 
it.  The  first  stanza  is  grand  and  full  of  inspiration  ; 
it  reads : 

"  From  Greenland's  icy  mountains, 

From  India's  c  :>ral  strand, 
Where  Afric's  sunny  fountains 

Roll  down  their  golden  sand  ; 
From  many  an  ancient  river, 

From  many  a  palmy  plain, 
They  call  us  to  deliver 

Their  land  from  error's  chain." 

That  is  genuine  poetry,  and  how  praiseworthy  m 
spirit !  But  the  poet  continues  : 

"  What  though  the  spicy  breezes 

Blow  soft  o'er  Ceylon's  isle, 
Though  every  prospect  pleases, 

And  only  man  is  vile  ; 
In  vain  with  lavish  kindness 

The  gifts  of  God  are  strown, 
The  heathen  in  his  blindness 

Bows  down  to  wood  and  stone." 

The  Singhalese  people  are  neither  vile  nor  idola- 
trous ;  they  are  famed  as  the  gentlest  race  on  earth, 
and  their  religion  is  Buddhism.  Their  worship  con- 


244      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

sists  in  flower  offerings  at  Buddha-shrines,  but  even 
the  most  ignorant  of  them  are  aware  of  the  fact 
that  a  Bucldha  statue  is  not  the  Buddha  himself. 
Protestants  make  similar  accusations  against  the 
Roman  Catholics,  when  they  ought  to  distinguish 
between  practices  resembling  idolatry  and  idolatry 
itself. 

If  Buddhists  sent  missionaries  to  our  country  who  • 
sang  such  stanzas  to  us,  how  should  we  like  it  ?  It 
is  certain  that  missionary  hymns  which  denounce 
the  people  of  Ceylon  as  "  vile  "  do  not  help  Chris- 
tians to  make  converts  among  them. 

The  hymn  continues : 

"  Can  we,  whose  souls  are  lighted 

With  wisdom  from  on  high, 
Can  we  to  men  benighted 
The  lamp  of  life  deny  ?  " 

The  poet  intends  to  glorify  "  the  light  from  on 
high,"  but  he  exalts  himself  as  belonging  to  those 
"  whose  souls  are  enlightened  with  wisdom  from  on 
high  " — which  makes  a  great  difference !  His  noble 
zeal  for  spreading  the  truth  appears  as  pharisaical 
self-conceit,  and  can  only  give  offence  to  those  whom 
he  wishes  to  convert.  Thus  it  is  natural  that  when 
Christian  missionaries  speak  of  love,  Buddhists  ac- 
cuse them  of  haughtiness  and  pride. 

Missionaries  do  not  only  unnecessarily  offend  the 
pagans  by  showing  a  contempt  for  their  persons, 
their  religion,  their  morals  and  their  nationality, 
but  also  require  of  their  converts  a  surrender  of 


CHRISTIAN    CRITICS    OF    BUDDHISM.  245 

habits  and  customs  which  they  cannot  give  up 
without  cutting  themselves  loose  from  their  tradi- 
tions, which  necessarily  and  naturally  have  become 
most  sacred  to  them.  It  should  be  as  little  neces- 
sary for  a  Chinaman  to  sever  himself  from  the  noble 
traditions  of  his  nation  if  he  becomes  a  Christian,  as 
it  would  be  for  a  Jew  to  look  upon  his  race  as  the 
outcasts  of  God.  Jew-Christians  might  continue  to 
abstain  from  pork,  and  Buddhist  vegetarians  who 
become  Christians  might  remain  vegetarians  after 
their  conversion. 

In  the  Russian  Church  it  is  customary  for  con- 
verts to  curse  the  faith  to  which  they  formerly  be- 
longed, and  we  are  informed  that  the  present 
Empress  was  the  first  instance  in  which  an  excep- 
tion of  this  un-Christian  ordinance  had  been  made. 
She  was  permitted  to  become  a  Greek  Catholic 
without  cursing  the  Lutheran  denomination,  in 
which  she  was  reared. 

There  are  customs  in  China  expressive  of  the 
sacredness  of  family  traditions  which  a  convert  is 
expected  to  renounce  on  account  of  the  religious 
character  of  family  reunions. 

In  a  book  on  China  entitled  The  Dragon,  Image 
and  Demon,  by  the  Rev.  liampden  C.  Du  Bose, 
which  contains  much  valuable  information,  but  is 
written  in  a  spirit  that  does  not  become  a  Christian 
missionary,  we  find  the  following  statement  on  An- 
cestral Halls  in  China.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Du  Bose  says : 

"  These  buildings  are  not  so  conspicuous  as  the  idol  temples, 
but  they  are  very  numerous,  as  any  family  or  clan  may  have  its 


246      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

temple,  generally  marked  by  the  funereal  cedar.  Here  the 
'  spirit  tablets '  of  departed  forefathers  are  kept,  '  containing 
the  simple  legend  of  the  two  ancestral  names  carved  on  a 
board,'  and  '  to  the  child  the  family  tablet  is  a  reality,  the 
abode  of  a  personal  being  who  exerts  an  influence  over  him 
that  cannot  be  evaded,  and  is  far  more  to  him  as  an  individual 
than  any  of  the  popular  gods.  The  gods  are  to  be  feared  and 
their  wrath  deprecated,  but  ancestors  represent  love,  care,  and 
kindly  interest.'  If  the  clan  do  not  own  an  ancestral  hall, 
there  is  '  in  every  household  a  shrine,  a  tablet,  an  oratory  or 
a  domestic  temple,  according  to  the  position  of  the  family. 
It  is  a  grand  and  solemn  occasion  when  all  the  males  of  a  tribe 
in  their  dress  robes  gather  at  the  temple,  perhaps  a  great 
'  country  seat,'  of  the  dead,  and  the  patriarch  of  the  line,  as  a 
chief  priest  of  the  family,  offers  sacrifice. 

"  Much  property  is  entailed  upon  these  ancestral  halls  to 
keep  up  the  worship,  but  as  this  expense  is  not  great,  all  the 
family  have  shares  in  the  joint  capital,  and  the  head  of  the 
clan  sometimes  comes  in  for  a  good  living.  At  baptism  con- 
verts to  the  Christian  faith  renounce  their  claim  to  a  share  in 
this  family  estate  because  of  its  idolatrous  connections. 

"  In  these  halls  the  genealogical  tables  are  kept,  and  many 
of  the  Chinese  can  trace  their  ancestry  to  ten,  twenty,  thirty, 
and  sometimes  ever  to  sixty  generations.  These  registers  are 
kept  with  great  care,  and  may  be  considered  reliable. 

"  '  Should  a  man  become  a  Christian  and  repudiate  ancestral 
worship,  all  his  ancestors  would  by  that  act  be  consigned  to  a 
state  of  perpetual  beggary.  Imagine,  too,  the  moral  courage 
required  for  an  only  or  the  eldest  son  to  become  a  Christian, 
and  call  down  upon  himself  the  anathemas  not  only  of  his 
own  family  and  friends,  but  of  the  spirits  of  all  his  ancestors. 

"  When  we  preach  against  this  form  of  paganism  it  seems 
as  heathenish  to  the  Chinese,  as  if  at  home  we  taught  a  child 
to  disobey  his  father  and  despise  his  mother.  '  It  forms  one 
of  the  subtlest  phases  of  idolatry — essentially  evil  with  the 
guise  of  goodness — ever  established  among  men. ' " 

Du  Bose  is  well-meaning,  but  a  partisan ;  he  is 
a  Christian  pagan,  who  believes  that  the  institutions 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  247 

of  his  sect  and  nation  alone  afford  salvation.  His 
book  is  an  instance  of  the  wrong  spirit  that  prevails 
among  many  Christian  missionaries.  It  is  not  free 
from  misrepresentations,  but  lacks  all  consideration 
of,  and  reverence  for  the  accomplishments  of  great 
men  that  are  of  another  creed  and  another  race.  Of 
the  founder  of  Tauism,  Du  Bose  says,  p.  345  : 

"  His  name  *  [sic]  is  Laotsze,  which  means  literally  '  old 
boy,'  or,  judging  from  some  things  that  are  said  about  him, 
the  wild  Western  appellation  '  old  coon '  is  not  inappropriate." 

Du  Bose  calls  Buddha  "  the  Night  of  Asia,"  as  if 
Asia  would  have  been  better  off  without  Buddhism. 
As  for  Buddhistic  superstitions,  which  every  Bud- 
dhist will  grant  prevail  among  the  uneducated  classes, 
we  would  say  that  Buddha  can  be  made  as  little 
responsible  for  them  as  Christ  is  responsible  for 
Christian  crusades,  witch  persecutions,  and  heresy 
trials,  which  were  once  quite  common  over  all 
Christendom. 

Christian  missionaries  ought  to  be  bent  on  pre- 
serving all  that  is  good  in  the  Chinese  character. 
They  must  not  ruthlessly  break  down  those  features 
which  are  characteristic  of  the  Chinese.  If  mission- 
aries cannot  find  a  modus  vivendi  for  converts  by 
which  they  can  preserve  their  hallowed  family  rela- 
tions and  continue  to  hold  their  ancestors  dear,  we 
cannot  blame  the  Chinese  Government  for  regarding 

*  Lautsze,  which  means  "  the  old  philosopher,"  is  not  a  name, 
but  an  appellation.  His  proper  name  is  Er,  his  family  name 
Li.  Tsze  means  child  and  philosopher  at  the  same  time. 


248      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

Christian  missionaries  as  a  public  nuisance.  AVe 
respect  the  Saxon  chief  who,  on  hearing  that  all  his 
ancestors  were  in  Hell,  withdrew  from  the  baptismal 
font  and  preferred  eternal  damnation  with  his  fathers 
to  the  bliss  of  the  Christian  Heaven  in  the  company 
of  Christian  monks. 

Missionarizing  should  not  cease,  but  should  be 
raised  to  a  higher  level.  It  should  be  done  in  broth- 
erly love,  not  with  contempt  or  in  a  spirit  of  pharisaic 
self-conceit.  The  rules  which  ought  to  be  observed 
by  all  of  us  are  well  set  forth  by  the  Eev.  George 
T.  Candlin,  of  Tien-tsin,  a  Christian  missionary  to 
China,  who  personally  and  in  friendliness  met  the 
Buddhist  and  Confucian  delegates  from  Eastern  Asia 
on  the  platform  of  the  Religious  Parliament.  He 
writes : 

"  We  must  begin  by  giving  one  another  credit  for  good  in- 
tentions. I  do  not  see  why  we  may  not  commence  at  once  by 
the  leading  representatives  of  the  various  faiths  who  were 
present  at  Chicago,  including  all  the  distinguished  represen- 
tatives of  Christianity,  with  Mr.  Mozoomdar,  Mr.  Dharmapala, 
Mr.  Vivekananda.  Mr.  Gnandi,  the  Buddhists  of  Japan,  the 
high  priest  of  Shintoism,  and  our  friend  Mr.  Pung  entering 
into  direct  covenant  with  each  other  : 

"  1.  Personally  never  to  speak  slightingly  of  the  religious 
faith  of  one  another.  This  I  understand  does  not  debar  the 
kindly  and  reverential  discussion  of  differences  which  exist. 
or  the  frank  utterance  of  individual  belief. 

"  2.  Officially  to  promote  among  their  partisans,  by  all 
means  in  their  power,  by  oral  teaching,  through  the  press,  and 
by  whatever  opportunity  God  may  give  them,  a  like  spirit  of 
brotherly  regard  and  honest  respect  for  the  beliefs  of  others. 

"3.  To  discourage  amongst  the  various  peoples  they  serve  as 
religious  guides,  all  such  practices  and  ceremonies  as  not 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS    OF   BUDDHISM.  249 

constituting  an  essential  part  of  their  faith,  are  inimical  to  its 
purity  and  are  the  strongest  barriers  to  union. 

"4.  To  promote  all  such  measures  as  will  advance  reform, 
progress  and  enlightenment,  political  liberty  and  social  im- 
provement among  the  people  of  their  own  faith  and  nation- 
ality. 

"5.  To  regard  it  as  part  of  their  holiest  work  on  earth  to 
enlist  all  men  of  ability  and  influence  with  whom  they  are 
brought  into  contact  in  the  same  noble  cause. 

';  To  these  articles  I  can  heartily  subscribe  myself.  I  do  not 
see  why  others  may  not." 

A    BUDDHIST    TRACT. 

During  the  "World's  Fair  the  interest  taken  in 
other  religions,  especially  in  Buddhism,  grew  to 
such  an  extraordinary  degree  that  some  Christians 
began  to  fear  for  Christianity  and  tried  to  counter- 
act the  favorable  impression  which  the  foreign 
delegates  had  made  on  the  Chicago  public.  The 
idea  prevailed  that  missionary  work  was  redundant 
because  the  followers  of  Buddha,  Zoroaster,  Mo- 
hammed, and  Confucius  were  on  a  par  with  the 
followers  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  no  longer  needed  the 
Gospel.  To  counteract  the  evil  influence  of  this 
opinion,  a  leaflet  was  published  for  distribution  at  the 
entrance  of  the  Art  Palace,  in  which  the  Religious 
Parliament  was  being  held.  The  leaflet  fell  into  my 
hands,  and,  being  of  extraordinary  interest,  I  can- 
not help  calling  attention  to  it,  and  shall  be  glad  to 
contribute  my  share  to  its  wide  circulation.* 

*The  leaflets  can  be  had  at  five  cents  each,  ten  for  25  cents, 
or  $1.50  per  hundred,  from  W.  E.  B.,  332  Lake  street,  Oak 
Park,  Illinois. 


250      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

The  leaflet  contains  the  reprint  of  a  Chinese  plac- 
ard, being  a  religious  tract  that  exhorts  men  to  con- 
version. The  occasion  on  which  the  placard  was 
produced  is  described  in  The  Far  East,  as  follows  : 

"  Gan-kin  was  full  of  death.  There  was  a  great  drought. 
No  rain  had  fallen  for  six  months.  The  city  was  parched  and 
dry.  Foul  odors  and  pestilential  gases,  resulting  from  inde- 
scribably unsanitary  conditions,  bred  fevers  and  cholera  and 
death.  There  was  no  water  to  wash  in,  and  hardly  any  to 
drink.  The  children  died.  The  beasts  died.  The  people  died. 
The  crops  failed.  Famine  threatened  the  city.  Who  was  to 
blame  ?  Above  all,  who  was  to  help  ? 

"  Kaolaishan,  disciple  of  Buddha,  had  an  inspiration.  The 
Buddhist  priest  Che  had  spoken.  Gan-kin  had  forgotten  his 
words ;  this  miserable  state  of  things  was  quite  to  be  expected  ; 
but  the  town  should  remember  once  more.  If  he  were  to  re- 
mind Gan-kin,  it  would  be  an  act  of  merit.  He  would  gain. 
The  town  would  gain.  He  might  avert  the  famine. 

"And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  the  words  of  the  Buddhist 
priest  Che  were  once  more  in  vogue  at  Gan-kin.  Kaolaishan 
did  his  work  thoroughly.  He  printed  a  large  tract.  It  was 
three  feet  long  and  one  and  one-half  feet  wide.  It  was  posted 
up  on  the  walls  and  distributed  by  thousands.  Everybody 
who  could  read,  read  it.  Everybody  who  could  pray,  prayed 
it.  It  enjoined  a  constant  repetition  of  Buddha's  name.  His 
name  was  repeated  innumerable  times,  for  could  not  his  name 
avail  to  avert  the  famine  ? 

"  The  central  figure  on  the  sheet  was  that  of  the  Buddhist 
priest.  The  lines  of  his  garments  were  ingeniously  contrived 
in  readable  characters.  Three  rows  of  dots  on  his  shaven  head 
showed  the  marks  of  his  ordination.  For  every  bead  on  the 
rosary  in  his  hand  he  was  supposed  to  repeat  Buddha's  name 
or  a  prayer.  A  coffin  and  a  skeleton  at  the  foot  of  the  sheet 
represented  death— a  subject  on  which  the  Buddhist  priest  had 
thought." 

The  leaflet  reproduces  in  fac-simile  on  a  reduced 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  251 

scale  the  Chinese  placard,  and  offers  a  literal  transla- 
tion of  its  contents,  neglecting,  however,  the  poetic 
measure  and  the  rhyme,  and  showing  sometimes  a 
lack  of  tact  in  the  choice  of  words.  But  the  transla- 
tion is  clear  enough  to  render  the  sense  and  give  a 
fair  impression  of  the  religious  spirit  of  the  original. 
The  motive  of  the  publication  is  "  to  let  Buddhism 
speak  for  itself."  The  author  of  the  tract  says : 

"  Buddhism  is  the  faith  of  millions  to-day.  Are  we  to  be- 
lieve that  this  faith,  evolved  by  the  ages  in  the  process  of  re- 
ligious development,  exactly  suits  the  requirements  of  these 
millions,  and  that  all  efforts  for  their  evangelization  are  ill- 
judged  and  unreasonable  attempts  to  foist  a  foreign  faith 
upon  people  who  do  not  need  it  any  more  than  they  need 
foreign  clothes  ?  Or  are  we  to  number  them  among  '  the 
ignorant  and  those  that  are  out  of  the  way,'  upon  whom  the 
Christ  of  God  had  compassion,  whom  He  has  died  to  redeem, 
and  to  whom  we  are  responsible  to  carry  the  glad  tidings  of 
His  great  love  and  great  salvation  ?  " 


Before  entering  into  the  contents  of  the  Buddhist 
tract  I  wish  to  repeat  that,  far  from  being  opposed  to 
missions,  I  am  a  strong  supporter  of  the  missionary 
spirit  and,  lest  the  following  criticisms  be  misunder- 
stood, the  reader  should  bear  in  mind  what  has  been 
said  in  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  on  the  mis- 
sionary problem. 

The  little  Buddhist  tract,  translated  for  the  pur- 
pose of  ridiculing  Buddhism,  is  apparently  a  gem 
of  religious  poetry,  and  many  passages  of  it  might 
grace  any  Christian  hymn-book  if  the  translation 
were  only  cast  into  an  elegant  literary  form. 


252      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS    CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

The  title  of  the  whole  reads  :  "  Tract  Exhorting 
All  Men  to  Invoke  Buddha's  Name."  It  consists  of 
several  parts.  The  first  of  it  is  a  religious  hymn  on 
the  vanity  of  all  things,  composed  by  the  Buddhist 
priest  Che,  and  reads,  according  to  the  translation 
before  me,  as  follows : 

"  It  is  good  to  reform  ;  it  is  good  to  reform, 
The  things  of  the  world  will  be  all  swept  away. 
Let  others  be  busy  while  buried  in  care, 
My  mind,  all  unvexed,  shall  be  pure. 

' '  They  covet  all  day  long,  and  when  are  they  satisfied  ? 
They  only  regret  that  the  wealth  of  the  family  is  small, 
They  are  clearly  but  puppets  held  up  by  a  string, 
When  the  string  breaks  they  come  down  with  a  run. 

"  In  the  domain  of  death  there  is  neither  great  nor  small, 
They  use  not  gold  nor  silver  and  need  not  precious  things, 
There  is  no  distinction  made  between  mean  and  ignoble, 
ruler  and  prince. 

"  Every  year  many  are  buried  beneath  the  fragrant  grass  ; 
Look  at  the  red  sun  setting  behind  the  western  hills. 
Before  you  are  aware  the  cock  crows  and  it  is  daj'light  again. 

"  Speedily  reform.     Do  not  say  :  '  It  is  early,' 
The  smallest  child  easily  becomes  old. 
Your  talent  reaches  to  the  dipper  (in  the  heavens). 
Your  wealth  fills  a  thousands  chests. 

[But  consider  that]  the  consequences  of  your  actions  will 
follow  you  in  future  time.* 

*  This  line  deviates  from  the  copy  before  me.  The  translator 
has  somehow  misunderstood  the  original  Chinese,  and  trans- 
lates "  your  patrimony  follows  you,  when  will  you  be  satis- 
fied ?  The  rendering  as  given  above  is  on  the  authority  of 
Mr.  K.  Tanaka,  a  Japanese  student  of  philosophy  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  whom  I  requested  to  revise  the  question- 
able passages  of  the  translation. 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  253 

'  It  is  good  to  exhort  people  to  reform. 

To  become  vegetarian,*  and  invoke  Buddha's  name  is  a  pre- 
cious thing  you  can  carry  with  you. 
It  may  be  seen  that  wealth  and  reputation  are  vain. 
You  cannot  do  better  than  to  invoke  Buddha's  name. 

There  is,  there  is ;  there  is  not,  there  is  not ;   yet  we  are 

troubled. 

We  labor,  we  toil ;  when  do  we  rest  ? 
Man  born  is  like  a  winding  stream  ; 
The  affairs  of  the  world  are  heaped  up  mountain  high. 
From  of  old,  from  of  old,  and  now,  and  now,  many  return 

to  their  original. 

The  poor,  the  poor,  the  rich,  the  rich,  change  places. 
We  pass  the  time  as  a  matter  of  course ; 
The  bitter,  the  bitter,  the  sweet,  the  sweet,  their  destiny  is 

the  same." 

* 
*  * 

To  covet  profit  and  seek  reputation  the  world  over 

Is  not  so  good  as  (to  wear)  a  ragged  priest's  garment,  and  be 

found  among  the  Buddhists. 

A  caged  fowl  has  food,  but  the  gravy  pot  is  near. 
The  wild  crane  has  no  grain,  but  heaven  and  earth  are  his.f 

It  is  difficult  to  retain  wealth  and  fame  for  a  hundred  years, 

Transmigration  of  souls  continually  causes  change. 

I  exhort  you,  gentlemen,  to  speedily  seek  some  way  of  re- 
forming your  conduct. 

A  man  (being)  once  lost,  a  million  ages  (of  suffering)  will  be 
hard  to  bear." 


"  A  solitary  lamp  illumines  the  darkness  of  the  night, 
You  get  into  bed,  take  off  your  socks  and  shoes  ; 

*  The  Chinese,  speaking  generally,  are,  as  a  nation,  vegeta- 
rians. Frequently  this  is  a  matter  of  necessity  with  them,  but 
when  strict  Buddhists  they  abstain  from  animal  food  from  re- 
ligious motives. — Foot-note  of  the  Missionary  Tract. 

t  The  crane  denotes  the  Buddhist  work. 


254      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

Your  three  souls  and  seven  spirits  turn  and  follow  your 
dreams,* 

Whether  they  will  come  back  in  the  morning  light  is  un- 
certain." 

*  * 

"  To  be  forgotten,  grow  old,  and  die  of  disease  is  a  bitter  thing, 
Put  who  has  not  this  ? 
If  you  do  not  invoke  Amitabha  Buddha,  how  can  you  escape 

punishment." 

# 

*  * 

"  Villainous  devices,  treacherous  evil,   hidden  poison,   false 

rejoicing, 
Forgetting  favors,  crossing  the  river  and  then  breaking  the 

bridge  (i.  e. ,  to  serve  oneself  at  the  expense  of  others), 
Losing  all  conscience,  deceiving  one's  own  heart ;  one  that 

has  done  these  things  will  live  with  the  king  of  Hell. 
He  that  has  said  good-bye  to  conscience,  finds  it  even  now 

difficult 

To  escape  the  punishment  of  the  knife-hill  and  oil  pot. 
Houses,  gold  and  silver,  land,  wife,  family, 
Grace  and  love,  rank  and  lust,  all  are  VAIN."  f 

[Now  the  Buddhist  priest  addresses  the  skeleton : — ] 
"  How  can  you,  sir,  carry  all  things  away  with  you  ? 
A  few  layers  of  yellow  earth  cover  all  your  glory." 


*  The  three  souls  are  three  abstracts  of  man's  psychic  life, 
such  as  we  make  when  distinguishing  between  mind,  soul  and 
spirit.  The  seven  elementary  spirits  represent  various  aspects 
of  man's  vitality  and  the  physiological  processes  of  his  system. 

t  The  characters  representing  these  several  possessions  are 
ranged  above  one  large,  elongated  sign.  This  character,  which 
is  pronounced  Kong,  and  corresponds  pretty  accurately  to  the 
Latin,  vanus,  is  thus  shown  to  be  the  sum  of  man's  earthly 
possessions  and  attainments ;  reminding  one  strongly  of  the 
words  of  the  preacher — "  All  is  vanity." — Remark  of  the  Mis- 
sionary translator. 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   AND  BUDDHISM.          255 

[The  inscription  on  the  coffin  reads  as  follows  : — ] 
A  silver  coffin  worth  108,000  ounces  of  pure  silver  (about 

£27,000). 
This  man  took  pains  to  devise  ingenious  things,  but  all  in 

VAIN. 


To  travel  east,  west,  north,  south,  to  see  all  life  is  vain  ; 

Heaven  is  vain,  earth  is  vain,  including  also  mysterious  man. 

The  sun  is  vain,  the  moon  is  vain. 

They  come  and  go,  for  what  purpose  ? 

Fields  are  vain,  lands  are  vain,  how  quickly  they  change 

owners ! 
Gold  is  vain,  silver  is  vain,  after  death  how  much  remains 

in  your  hand  ? 

Wives  are  vain,  children  are  vain. 
They  do  not  join  you  on  the  way  to  hades. 
According  to  the  '  Tatsang  classic '  vanity  is  lust, 
According  to  '  Panrohsin  classic  '  lust  is  vanity. 
He  that  travels  from  east  to  west  is  like  a  honey  bee  ; 
After  he  has  made  honey  from  flowers  with  all  his  labor,  all 


After  midnight  you  hear  the  drum  beat  the  third  watch, 
You  turn  over,  and  before  you  know  where  you  are  you  hear 

the  bell  striking  the  fifth  watch  [indicating  daylight]. 
To  carefully  think  it  over  from  the  start,  it  is  like  a  dream. 
If  you  do  not  believe,  look  at  the  peach  and  apricot  trees, 
How  long  after  the  flowers  open  are  they  withered ! 
If  you  regard  prince  and  minister,  after  death  they  revert  to 

the  soil, 

Their  bodies  go  to  the  earth,  their  breath  to  the  winds, 
Within  the  covering  of  yellow  earth  there  is  nothing  but  a 

mass  of  corruption  ;  they  pass  away  no  better  than  pigs 

or  dogs. 
Why  did  they  not  at  the  beginning  inquire  of  the  Buddhist 

priest  Che  ? 

There  is  one  life  and  not  two  deaths  ; 
Don't  brag,  then,  before  others  of  your  cleverness. 


256      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS.. 

A  man  during  life  owns  vast  tracts  of  land. 
After  death  he  can  only  have  three  paces  of  eartli  [eight 
feet  of  land  by  twelve  in  length].* 

Here  we  must  interrupt  our  quotation  because  the 
next  following  lines  are  apparently  misunderstood 
by  the  translator.  As  they  stand  they  give  no 
sense.  The  translation  reads  as  follows  : 

"  To  think  it  over  carefully  after  death,  nothing  would  be 

taken  away  ; 
The  Buddhist  priest  Che  has,  with  his  own  hand,  written  to 

you. 
The  word  heart :  loudly  laugh ! 

"  Not  much  time  need  be  employed  in  writing  it. 
It  has  one  curve  like  the  moon  and  three  dots  all  awry. 
The  feathered  tribe,  and  the  beasts  also,  will  become  Buddhas. 
If  you  only  invoke  Buddha's  name  you  will  go  to  the  king- 
dom where  there  is  the  highest  bliss. " 

The  translator  adds  the  following  comment  in 
explanation  : 

[At  this  point  it  will  be  seen  that  the  winding  convolutions 
of  the  priest's  robe  have  reached  the  centre  of  his  body.  Here 
the  heart  is  by  the  Chinese  supposed  to  be  located,  and  a  good 
deal  of  the  "  ingenuity  "  referred  to  in  the  title  is  contained  in 
the  fact  that  at  this  point  the  characters  refer  to  the  heart. 
Hence  the  exhortation  to  "  laugh  loudly."  To  Western  minds 
the  sudden  introduction  of  three  wholly  disconnected  lines 
breaking  in  upon  the  theme  of  the  discourse  is  not  sufficiently 
ingenious  to  dispense  with  explanation.] 

The  original  Chinese,  which  in  this  passage,  in 
spite  of  its  reduction  in  size,  is  plainly  legible,  means 
(according  to  Mr.  Tanaka's  version) : 

*  Mr.  Tanaka  calls  my  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  translator 
omitted  this  line  but  quoted  it  in  a  foot-note  as  the  literal 
translation  of  "  three  paces  of  earth." 


CHRISTIAN    CRITICS    AND    BUDDHISM.  257 

The  Buddhist  priest  Che  wrote  with  his  hand  the  word 
"heart, "and  he  laughed  to  himself  [thinking]  how  little  time 
is  needed  in  writing  it,  etc. 

That  is  to  say :  The  Buddhist  priest  Che  writes 
the  character  hsin*  which  in  Chinese  is  one  of  the 
easiest  words  to  write,  and  he  thinks  to  himself, "  ]f 
only  the  people  knew  how  easy  it  is  to  attain  salva- 
tion !  It  is  as  easy  as  the  writing  of  the  word  heart. 
Thus  the  whole  world  can  be  transfigured  into  the 
state  of  Nirvana  if  only  the  name  of  Buddha  be 
rightly  invoked/' 

The  passage  reminds  one  of  an  old  German  hymn, 
wnich  begins : 

"  Es  ist  gar  leicht.ein  Christ  zu  sein  !" 
,         "  'Tis  easy  indeed  to  be  a  Christian." 

We  need  not  discuss  the  significance  of  this  state- 
ment, so  similar  in  Buddhism  and  in  Christianity  ; 
the  truth  is  that  the  easiest  thing  is  sometimes  the 
most  difficult  to  accomplish.  A  change  of  heart  seems 
a  trifling  circumstance,  but  it  implies  a  change  of  the 
entire  man  and  of  his  whole  life.  The  invocation 
of  the  Saviour — be  his  title  Buddha  or  Christ — im- 
plies the  adoption  of  his  views  of  life  and  moral 
maxims. 


The  tract  now  introduces  a  worldly-minded  man, 
whose  egotism  is  characterized  in  these  words  : 

*Hstn  j(£  means  "heart.'' 
'7 


258      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

[An  unbeliever  says :— ] 
"  I  see  other  men  die, 
My  heart  is  burning  like  fire. 
I  am  not  anxious  about  other  men, 
But  [I  tremble]  because  the  wheel  comes  to  me  too." 

[The  priest  replies  : — ] 

"  If  you  wish  to  escape  the  ills  of  life  and  death, 
At  once  invoke  Buddha's  name. 
If  in  life  you  invoke  his  name 
Hereafter  you  shall  reap  the  highest  bliss." 

"  Pikiu,  Pikiuni,  Yiuposeh,  Yiupoi. 
Virtuous  men,  virtuous  women,  and  the  other  devotees  of 

Buddha 

Shall  all  together  go  to  the  Western  Paradise. 
On  seeing  this  tract  reflect,  reflect. 
Kaolaishan,  disciple  of  Buddha,  native  of  Chihli  has  engraved 

it  and  given  away  as  an  act  of  merit.    The  block 

he  retains  in  his  own  keeping. 
"  Respect  printed  paper." 

Such  is  the  Chinese  tract  according  to  the  Chris- 
tian missionary's  translation,  with  a  few  emendations 
of  my  own.  Aside  from  the  suggested  change  of  the 
sense  in  the  main  passage,  1  have  only  taken  the  lib- 
erties which  are  of  a  purely  literary  character,  re- 
placing such  phrases  as  "  repeat  Buddha's  name  "  by 
"  invoke  Buddha's  name,"  "  article  of  death "  by 
"  domain  of  death,"  and  the  abbreviation  "  Mito  " 
by  the  full  name  "  Amitabha  Buddha,"  which  latter 
form  is  better  known. 

The  translator  may,  in  spite  of  the  mistakes  wilich 
he  ma.de  in  several  passages,  be  a  good  Chinese  scholar, 
but  he  betrays  his  utter  ignorance  of  Buddhism  by  his 
explanation  of  the  words  JPikiu,  Pikiuni)  Yiuposeh^ 


CHRISTIAN  CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  259 

Yiupoi.  These  words  are  the  Chinese  forms  of  the 
Sanskrit  words  Bhikshu,  Bhikshuni  ;*  Upasaka, 
Upasika  which  means  "  monks,  nuns  ;  male  lay  dis- 
ciples and  female  lay  disciples."  The  translation  of 
the  Sanskrit  words  is  given  in  the  next  following 
line,  but  the  Christian  missionary,  in  translating  the 
placard,  explains  the  words  in  a  foot-note  as : 

"  A  Buddhist  charm,  probably  derived  from  Indian  names. 
The  words  have  no  significance  whatever,  being  merely  re- 
peated as  a  kind  of  magic." 

The  words  Bhikshu,  Bhikshuni,  Upasaka,  Upu- 
sika,  may  be  unknown  to  those  Chinese  people  who 
received  no  religious  education,  but  among  Buddhists 
they  are  common  terms ;  and  what  shall  we  think 
of  a  missionary  who  lives  in  China  for  the  purpose 
of  converting  Buddhists,  but  is  so  unacquainted  with 
Buddhism  that  he  regards  the  words  with  which  the 
congregation  is  commonly  addressed  as  a  kind  of 
magic  \  Imagine  that  a  Buddhist  came  to  America 
and  would  not  know  what  the  words  pastor,  deacon, 
and  church  member  or  communicant  meant,  and 
would  explain  them  to  be  unmeaning  words  used  as 
a  charm  1 


The  whole  placard  is  encompassed  with  two  rows 
of  little  circles,  which  surround  the  hymns  that  ap- 

*  In  Pali  Bhikkhu,Bhikkhuni.  The  Sanskrit  Bhikshuni  is  not 
an  original  and  legitimate  Sanskrit  word,  but  one  of  those 
later  terms  which  has  been  formed  after  the  analogy  of  the 
correspondent  Pali  form. 


260      BUDDHISM   AND    ITS    CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

pear  in  the  shape  of  a  priest's  picture  like  a  frame ; 
and  at  the  right-hand  side  we  read  the  injunction  to 
fill  out  the  little  circles  with  a  red  pencil  on  each 
three  hundred  times  that  the  Refuge  formula  has 
been  repeated. 

The  Christian  translator  of  the  tract  condemns 
severely  the  pagan  habit  of  repeating  Buddha's  name 
innumerable  times,  and  we  do  not  hesitate  to  join 
him  in  his  disapproval.  But  he  ought  to  consider 
first  that  the  repetition  of  prayers  or  formulas  is  a 
practical  method  of  impressing  religious  truths  on 
the  hearts  of  the  people  ;  it  is  in  a  certain  stage  of 
culture  as  commendable  as  the  method  of  teaching 
the  multiplication  tables  by  making  children  commit 
them  to  memory  ;  and,  secondly,  that  the  Christians, 
too,  have  to  a  great  extent  availed  themselves  of 
this  method  by  enjoining  people  to  repeat  the  Lord's 
Prayer  over  and  over  again.  The  practice  of  repeat- 
ing the  Refuge  Formula  and  of  repeating  the  Lord's 
Prayer  are  on  the  same  level,  and,  if  it  is  to  be  con- 
demned in  one  case,  why  should  we  not  denounce  the 
other  as  well  ?  The  Buddhist  Refuge  Formula  (in 
Chinese  0-mi-to-fu,  which  means  "  I  take  my  refuge 
in  Buddha ")  is  the  vow  which  Buddhists  make  to 
pacify  their  emotions,  and  vows  are  the  only  prayers 
which  Buddhism  allows.  This  prayer  a  Buddhist  is 
expected  to  have  in  his  heart  whatever  he  does, — 
when  he  lies  down  to  sleep,  when  he  rises  in  the 
morning,  when  he  stands,  when  he  walks,  when  he  is 
in  good  health,  when  he  is  sick,  and  when  he  faces 
death.  The  Christian  translator  says  :  "  And  there 


A    BUDDHIST    TRACT 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF  BUDDHISM.  261 

is  none  to  answer,  nor  any  even  to  hear."     He  con- 
tinues : 

"  Listen  to  that  cry  going  up  from  thousands  of  trembling 
lips,  ay,  from  millions  of  suffering  hearts,  daily,  hourly,  mo- 
mentarily ;  a  monotonous,  unceasing  repetition. 

"  And  remember  that  Jesus  hears  it  always  :  that  he  died  in 
response  to  its  unspoken  pain  and  sorrow.  Remember  that, 
having  committed  to  us  its  deep,  all-satisfying  reply,  He  says 
to  us  to-day,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  THE  GOS- 
PEL to  every  creature." 

This  is  a  strong  appeal  to  Christians  for  mission- 
arizing,  but  it  is  no  argument  against  Buddhism,  or 
Buddhist  vows.  I  am  fully  aware  of  the  difference 
which  it  makes  whether  the  people  take  their  refuge 
in  Jesus  or  in  Buddha,  for  it  is  not  the  name  only, 
but  the  whole  world-conception  connected  with  the 
name.  Behind  the  names  there  are  realities.  But 
with  all  the  difference  that  is  implied  in  names,  we 
must  not  imagine  that  there  is  a  peculiar  magic 
power  in  the  name  itself. 

Such  an  educated  Christian  as  Lavater  believed 
that  the  exorcisms  of  Gassner  were  efficacious  on 
account  of  the  holiness  of  the  name  of  Jesus.  He 
thought  that  the  word  "  Jesus  "  could  be  used  like  a 
spell,  or  like  the  charm  of  the  Indian  medicine  man. 
And  this  seems  to  be  the  view  of  the  Christian  trans- 
lator of  the  Buddhist  tract  before  us.  Shall  we  say 
that  the  Buddhist  contemplations  of  the  vanity  of 
earthly  life  and  the  seriousness  of  death  are  pagan 
notions  so  long  as  the  request  is  made  to  invoke  Bud- 


262      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS    CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

clha's  name,  and  would  these  same  thoughts  rise  to 
the  dignity  of  Christian  sentiment  if  only  the  name 
Buddha  Amitabha  were  replaced  by  Jesus  Christ  ? 

Justice  demands  us  to  consider  the  worth  of  our 
argument  also  from  the  standpoint  of  our  opponents. 
Might  not  Buddhists  reply  in  the  same  strain  ?  They 
might  say  :  "  Did  not  Buddha,  too,  send  out  his  dis- 
ciples with  the  words  which  we  quote  literally  as 
follows  : 

"  '  Go  ye  now,  O  bhikshus,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
many,  for  the  welfare  of  mankind,  out  of  compassion 
for  the  world.  Preach  the  doctrine  which  is  glorious 
in  the  beginning,  glorious  in  the  middle,  and  glorious 
in  the  end,  in  the  spirit  as  well  as  in  the  letter.  There 
are  beings  Avhose  eyes  are  scarcely  covered  with  dust, 
but  if  the  doctrine  is  not  preached  to  them  they 
cannot  attain  salvation.  Proclaim  to  them  a  life  of 
holiness.  They  will  understand  the  doctrine  and 
accept  it." 

Apparently  there  is  a  Christianity  which  is  not 
yet  free  from  paganism  and  lacks  charitableness  in 
judging  others.  Buddhists  might  on  the  same  ground 
regard  Christian  prayers  as  objectionable.  Yet  they 
will  scarcely  do  so,  for  whatever  advantages  the 
Christian  nations  have  over  the  followers  of  Buddha 
(and  there  can  be  no  question  about  it  that  these 
advantages  are  great),  in  one  respect  Buddhism  has 
the  preference  over  Christianity.  It  is  its  breadth 
and  comprehensiveness.  Buddhists  would  not  say  of 
Mohammed,  or  Zoroaster,  or  Confucius  that  they  are 
false  prophets.  Buddhists  recognize  the  prophetic 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  263 

nature  of  all  religious  leaders.      Sir  M.  Monier- Wil- 
liams quotes  the  following  Buddhistic  commandment  r 

"  Never  think  or  say  that  your  own  religion  is  the  best.  Never 
denounce  the  religion  of  others." 

It  was  Ashoka,a  Buddhist  emperor, who  convened 
about  two  thousand  years  ago  the  first  parliament 
of  religions  in  which  he  requested  the  sages  of  his 
large  empire  to  discuss  the  differences  of  their  re- 
spective faiths  in  brotherly  kindness. 

Ashoka's  twelfth  edict  declares  : 

"  There  ought  to  be  reverence  for  one's  own  faith  and  no 
reviling  of  that  of  others." 

I  have  not  as  yet  met  a  Buddhist  who  would  not 
look  upon  Christ  with  reverence  as  the  Buddha  of 
Western  nations. 

R.  SPENCE  HARDY. 

As  an  instance  of  the  wrong  spirit  that  animates 
many  (I  do  not  say  "  all ")  of  our  missionaries,  I 
refer  to  the  book  of  a  man  for  whose  intellectual 
and  moral  qualities  I  cherish  the  highest  opinion. 

The  Kev.  R.  Spence  Hardy,  the  famous  Buddhist 
scholar  to  whose  industry  we  owe  several  valuable 
contributions  to  our  knowledge  of  Buddhism,  has 
written  a  book,  The  Legends  and  Theories  of  the 
.Buddhists  Compared  with  History  and  Science,  in 
which  he  treats  Buddhism  with  extraordinary  injus- 
tice. This  is  not  in  the  interest  of  Christianity,  for 
it  is  nothing  but  the  spirit  of  injustice  that  alien- 


264      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

ates  the  sympathies  of  non-Christian  people  toward 
Christianity. 

It  is  strange  that  Mr.  Hardy's  unfair  statements 
are  made  with  no  apparent  malice,  but  from  a  sheer 
habit  which  has  been  acquired  through  the  notion 
of  the  exclusiveness  of  Christianity. 

In  making  these  critical  remarks  I  do  not  wish  to 
offend,  but  to  call  attention  to  a  fault  which  can  and 
should  be  avoided  in  the  future. 

Spence  Hardy  says  in  his  book,  The  Legends  and 
Theories  of  Buddhists  Compared  with  History  and 
Science  (pp.  138,  140) : 

"The  tales  that  are  told  about  the  acts  performed  by  Bud- 
dha, and  the  wonders  attendant  on  these  acts,  need  only  be 
stated,  in  order  to  be  rejected  at  once  from  the  realm  of  reality 
and  truth.  .  .  .  These  things  are  too  absurd  to  require  serious 
refutation." 

Mr.  Hardy  forgets  that  many  "  tales  told  about 
the  acts  performed  by  Jesus,  and  the  wonders  attend- 
ant on  the  acts,"  too,  need  only  be  stated,  in  order 
to  be  rejected  at  once  from  the  realm  of  reality 
and  truth.  Mr.  Hardy  recognizes  the  paganism  of 
others,  but  he  does  not  see  that  he  himself  is  still 
entangled  in  pagan  notions.  What  would  Mr. 
Hardy  say  if  a  Buddhist  were  to  write  exactly  the 
same  book  only  changing  the  word  Christ  into  Bud- 
dha and  making  other  little  changes  of  the  same 
nature.  Buddhists,  requested  by  a  Christian  mis- 
sionary to  believe  literally  in  Christ's  walking  upon 
the  water  or  being  bodily  lifted  up  to  heaven,  are, 
as  much  as  Spence  Hardy,  entitled  to  say  :  "  These 


CHRISTIAN  CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  265 

things  are  too  absurd  to  require  serious  refutation." 
Mr.  Hardy  protests  (p.  137) : 

"  I  deny  all  that  is  said  about  the  passing  through  the  air  of 
Buddha  and  his  disciples,  or  of  their  being  able  to  visit  the 
Dewa  and  Brahma  worlds." 

If  history  and  science  refute  the  miracles  attrib- 
uted in  the  later  Buddhistic  literature  to  Buddha, 
why  not  those  attributed  to  Christ  ?  And  we  must 
assume  that  Mr.  Hardy  does  not  deny  that  Christ 
descended  to  hell  and  that  he  passed  through  the 
air  when  carried  up  to  heaven  in  his  ascension. 

Mr.  Hardy  speaks  of  "  the  errors  of  Buddhism 
that  are  contrary  to  fact  as  taught  by  established 
and  uncontroverted  science  "  (p.  135),  but  he  appears 
to  reject  science  whenever  it  comes  into  collision 
with  a  literal  interpretation  of  Christian  doctrines. 
Buddhism  is  to  him  a  fraud,  Christianity  divine 
revelation.  He  says  of  Buddhism  (pp.  210-211, 
313,  207) : 

"  I  must  confess  that  the  more  closely  I  look  into  the  sys- 
tem, the  less  respect  I  feel  for  the  character  of  its  originators. 
That  which  at  first  sight  appears  to  be  the  real  glory  of  Bud- 
dhism, its  moral  code,  loses  all  its  distinction  when  minutely 
examined.  Its  seeming  brightness  is  not  that  of  the  morning 
star,  leading  onward  to  intenser  radiance  but  that  of  the 
meteor  ;  and  not  even  that ;  for  the  meteor  warns  the  trav- 
eller that  the  dangerous  morass  is  near,  [sic  /]  Buddhism  makes 
a  fool  of  man  by  promising  to  guide  him  to  safety,  while  it 
leads  him  to  the  very  verge  of  the  fatal  precipice.  .  .  .  The 
people  who  profess  this  system  know  nothing  of  the  solemn 
thought  implied  by  the  question,  '  How  can  I  do  this  great 
wickedness  and  sin  against  God  ? '  .  .  .  The  operation  of  the 


266      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHIIISTIAN   CRITICS. 

mind  is  no  different  in  mode  to  that  of  the  eye,  or  ear,  vision 
is  eye-touch,  hearing  is  ear-touch,  and  thinking  is  heart- 
touch.  The  man,  as  we  have  repeatedly  seen,  is  a  mere  mass, 
a  cluster,  a  name  and  nothing  more.  .  .  .  There  is  no  law, 
because  there  is  no  law-giver,  no  authority  from  which  law 
can  proceed." 


Man  is  "  a  cluster,"  means  that  the  unity  of  man's 
soul  is  a  unification — a  truth  on  which  all  prominent 
psychologists  and  naturalists  of  Christian  countries 
agree  with  Buddha.  In  the  same  sense  Hume  char- 
acterized the  human  soul  as  a  bundle  of  sensations 
and  ideas.  Man  is  an  organism  consisting  of  a  great 
number  of  living  structures,  which  in  their  co-opera- 
tion constitute  a  well-regulated  commonwealth  of 
sentient  functions.  And  why  should  there  be  no 
law  if  there  is  no  law-giver  ?  Is  the  law  of  gravity 
unreal  because  of  its  mathematical  nature,  which 
indicates  that  it  is  of  an  intrinsic  necessity  and 
requires  a  law-giver  as  little  as  the  arithmetical  law 
2x2=4.  Is  2x2=4  a  reliable  rule  only  if  a  per- 
sonal God  has  decreed  it  ?  The  moral  law  is  of  the 
same  kind ! 

Buddha  regards  the  order  of  the  world  not  as  the 
invention  of  either  Brahma  or  any  other  God,  but 
as  an  eternal  and  unconditional  law  as  rigid  as  the 
number-relations,  which  we  formulate  in  arithmet- 
ical propositions.  Does  such  a  view  of  man's  soul 
and  the  nature  of  the  moral  dispensation  of  life 
indeed  annul  all  moral  responsibility  ?  Buddhism 
does  not  employ  the  same  symbolical  terms  as 
Christianity,  but  it  is  not  devoid  of  an  authority  of 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  267 

moral  conduct.  Mr.  Spencc  Hardy  is  so  accustomed 
to  the  Christian  terminology,  that  he,  from  the 
start,  misconstrues  all  other  modes  of  expression. 

In  other  passages  Mr.  Hardy  refers  to  Buddha's 
tales  in  which  Buddha  speaks  of  his  experiences  in 
previous  existences.  He  says  (p.  153) : 

"These  facts  are  sufficient  to  convince  every  observant 
mind  that  what  Buddha  says  about  his  past  births,  and  those 
of  others,  is  an  imposition  upon  the  credulity  of  mankind, 
without  anything  whatever  to  support  it  from  fact." 

Here  Mr.  Hardy's  naivete  can  only  evoke  our 
smiles :  Buddhists  are  no  more  obliged  to  accept  the 
Jataka  tales  as  genuine  history,  than  our  children 
are  requested  to  believe  the  legends  of  saints  or 
Grimm's  fairy  tales.  There  are  Buddhists  who  be- 
lieve the  Jataka  tales,  and  there  are  many  Christians, 
especially  in  Roman  Catholic  countries,  who  believe 
the  legends  of  saints. 

Speaking  in  this  connexion  of  the  fossil  remains 
of  extinct  animals,  Mr.  Hardy  says  (p.  150) : 

"  Of  many  of  the  curious  creatures  that  formerly  existed 
only  a  few  fragments  have  been  found.'  Among  them  are 
birds  of  all  sizes,  from  an  ostrich  to  a  crow,  and  lizards  with 
a  bird's  beak  and  feet.  .  .  .  The  Himalayas  contain  the  re- 
mains of  a  gigantic  land  tortoise.  The  megatherium  lies  in 
the  vast  plains  of  South  America,  etc.,  etc.  .  .  .  Now  if  Bud- 
dha lived  in  these  distant  ages,  and  had  a  perfect  insight  into 
their  circumstances,  as  he  tells  us  he  had,  how  is  it  that  we 
have  no  intimation  whatever  in  any  of  his  numerous  refer- 
ences to  the  past,  that  the  world  was  so  different  in  these 
respects  to  what  it  is  now  ?  .  .  .  The  only  conclusion  we  can 
come  to  is,  that  he  knew  nothing  about  the  beasts  that  roamed 
in  other  lands,  or  the  birds  that  flew  in  other  skies  ;  and  that 


268      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

as  he  was  ignorant  of  their  existence  he  could  not  introduce 
them  into  his  tales." 

It  is  right  that  Mr.  Hardy  appeals  to  the  tribunal 
of  science  against  the  narrowness  of  a  belief  in  the 
letter  of  the  Buddhistic  Jatakas ;  but  why  does  he 
not  sweep  first  before  his  own  door  ?  Unfortunately, 
the  same  objections  can  be  made  to  Christ,  who 
said  :  "  Before  Abraham  was  I  am,"  apparently 
meaning  that  he  had  existed  aBons  before  his  birth. 
There  is  a  great  similarity  between  the  pre-existence 
of  Christ  and  of  Buddha,  especially  when  we  con- 
sider the  later  doctrine  of  Amitabha,  the  infinite 
light  of  Buddhahood,  which  is  omnipresent  and 
eternal.  While  Christ  claims  to  have  existed  before 
Abraham,  he  gives  us  no  information  about  the  fos- 
sil animals  that  have  of  late  been  found  by  geolo- 
gists. Ingersoll  speaks  of  Christ  in  the  same  way 
as  Spence  Hardy  does  of  Buddha.  He  says:  "If 
he  truly  was  the  Son  of  God,  he  ought  to  have 
known  the  future ;  he  ought  to  have  told  us  some- 
thing about  the  New  World  ;  he  ought  to  have 
broken  the  bonds  of  slavery.  Why  did  he  not  do 
it  ?  And  Ingersoll  concludes  :  "  Because  he  was  not 
the  Son  of  God.  He  was  a  man  who  knew  nothing 
and  understood  nothing."  When  Ingersoll  speaks 
in  these  terms,  he  is  accused  of  flippancy,  but  Mr. 
Hardy's  seriousness  is  not  to  be  doubted. 

What  would  Christians  say  of  a  Buddhist,  who, 
with  the  same  logic,  commenting  on  analogous 
Christian  traditions,  would  say  of  Christ  what  Mr. 
Hardy  says  of  Buddha !  Mr.  Hardy  says  : 


CHRISTIAN    CKITICS    OF    BUDDHISM.  269 

"  I  have  proved  that  Buddhism  is  not  a  revelation  of  truth  ; 
that  its  founder  was  an  erring  and  imperfect  teacher,  and 
ignorant  of  many  things  that  are  now  universally  known  ; 
and  that  the  claim  to  the  exercise  of  omniscience  made  for 
him  by  his  followers  is  an  imposition  and  pretence.  .  .  .  We 
can  only  regard  Buddha  as  an  impostor." 

This  is  strong  language,  and  I  am  sorry  for  Mr. 
Hardy  that  he  has  forgottten  himself  and  all  rules 
of  justice  and  fairness  in  his  missionary  zeal. 

Even  Buddha's  broadness  in  recognizing  the  good 
wherever  he  found  it,  is  stigmatized  by  Mr.  Hardy. 
He  says  (p.  215) : 

"  Buddha  acknowledges  that  there  are  things  excellent  in 
other  religions,  and  hence  he  did  not  persecute.  He  declares 
that  even  his  opponents  had  a  degree  of  wisdom  and  exercised 
a  miraculous  power.  But  this  very  indifference  about  error, 
as  about  everything  else,  this  apparent  candor  and  catholicity, 
is  attended  by  an  influence  too  often  fatal  to  the  best  interests 
of  those  by  whom  it  is  professed." 

Mr.  Hardy  condemns  "  this  apparent  candor  and 
catholicity"  as  "indifference  about  error,"  and  he 
adds  (p.  216) : 

"  To  be  a  Christian  a  man  must  regard  Buddha  as  a  false 
teacher." 

Mr.  Hardy,  apparently  intending  to  palliate  his 
harsh  remarks,  says : 

"  I  am  here  a  controversialist,  and  not  an  expositor."  (P. 
206.) 

But  even  as  a  controversialist,  he  should  not  lower 
himself  by  making  unjust  accusations.  It  is  neither 


270      BUDDHISM    AND    ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

right  nor  wise ;  for  the  liberties  which  he  takes  must 
be  granted  to  his  opponents ;  and  if  they  refuse  to 
use  them,  it  is  to  their  credit. 

Mr.  Hardy  says  :  "  These  conclusions  I  have 
founded  upon  statements  taken  from  the  sacred 
writings,"  and  he  rejects  Buddhism  on  account  of 
these  errors  wholesale.  Nor  would  he  permit  Bud- 
dhists to  discriminate  between  Buddha's  doctrine 
and  later  additions.  For,  says  Mr.  Hardy  (p.  219) : 

"  By  rejecting  other  parts  of  the  Pitakas  as  being  unworthy 
of  credence,  and  yet  founding  upon  them,  and  upon  them 
alone,  your  trust  in  the  words  they  ascribe  to  Buddha,  you  do 
that  which  no  wise  worshipper  would  do,  and  what  you  have 
no  liberty  to  do  as  a  man  guided  by  the  requirements  of  rea- 
son." 

This  is  a  dangerous  principle  for  Mr.  Hardy  to 
propound,  for  it  should  be  applicable  to  all  religions, 
and  what  would  become  of  Christianity  if  it  had  to 
be  kept  under  the  bondage  of  the  letter,  so  that  we 
should  no  longer  be  allowed  to  discriminate  between 
truth  and  error,  but  adopt  or  reject  at  once  the 
whole  fabric.  If  one  discrepancy  of  the  dogmatic 
texture  of  a  religion  with  science  or  with  reason 
disposes  of  it  as  a  fraud,  what  shall  we  do  with 
Christianity  ? 

Spence  Hardy's  attitude  toward  Buddhism  is 
typical  for  a  certain  class  of  'Christians  whose 
Christianity  is  little  more  than  a  highly  advanced 
paganism. 

Happily  there  are  Christians  who  see  deeper,  and 
they  feel  no  animosity  against  Buddhism  on  account 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  271 

of  its  many  agreements  with  Christian  doctrines. 
As  their  spokesman  we  quote  Prof.  Max  Miiller, 
who  says  : 

"If  I  do  find  in  certain  Buddhist  works  doctrines  identic- 
ally the  same  as  in  Christianity,  so  far  from  being  frightened, 
I  feel  delighted,  for  surely  truth  is  not  the  less  true  because  it 
is  believed  by  the  majority  of  the  human  race." 


CHARLES    GUTZLAFF. 

Speaking  of  the  critics  of  Buddhism  among  the 
missionaries,  we  must  not  forget  to  mention  the  Eev. 
Charles  Gutzlaff,  a  German,  who  enjoys  an  unde- 
served reputation  for  scholarship  among  people  un- 
acquainted with  his  writings.  His  two-volumed 
work,  China  Opened*  is  full  of  the  grossest  errors, 
which  are  scarcely  pardonable  in  an  illiterate  man 
who  lived  only  a  short  time  in  the  Middle  Kingdom. 
Note  only  this  tremendous  mistake:  Speaking  of 
Confucius,  who,  as  is  well  known,  was  not  an  original 
thinker  or  author,  but  a  conservative  preserver  of 
the  wisdom  of  the  sages  of  yore,  Gutzlaff  says  : 

"Antecedent  to  him,  China  does  not  appear  to  have  pos- 
sessed any  men  of  genius ;  or  if  it  did  possess  them,  both 
themselves  and  their  works  have  long  passed  into  oblivion." 

As  though  Fu  Hi,  Yii  the  Great,  Wu  Wang,  Wen 
Wang,  and  innumerable  other  sages,  among  them 
Lau-tsze,  who  were  born  before  Confucius,  had 

*  London:  Smith,  Elder,  &  Co.,  1838.  The  author's  name 
is  spelled  "Gutzlaff "  in  the  English  edition.  The  German 
spelling  is  '•Gutzlaff." 


272      BUDDHISM  AND  ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

either  not  existed  or  passed  into  oblivion  !  The  Shu 
King  is  a  collection  of  songs,  all  of  which  are  older 
than  Confucius. 

Other  blunders,  such  as  attributing  to  Confucius 
himself  the  well-known  classic  on  filial  piety,  which 
is  written  either  by  Tsang-tsze  or  by  a  scholar  be- 
longing to  the  school  of  Tsang-tsze,  are  scattered 
throughout  Gutzlaff's  book. 

Gutzlaif  pretends  to  have  read  books  of  which  he 
knows  very  little.  In  explanation  of  Lau-tsze's  term 
tau  (reason,  logos,  path),  he  says  : 

"  Commentators  differ  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  word.  We 
cite  the  opinions  only  of  the  two  most  celebrated  of  them. 
According  to  the  best  author,  Taou  is  the  art  of  governing  a 
country  ;  but  another  observes,  that  the  Taou  is  shapeless,  or 
invisible,  and  maintains  and  nourishes  heaven  and  earth.  It 
is  devoid  of  affection,  but  moves  the  bun  and  moon  ;  it  is 
nameless,  but  contributes  towards  the  growth  and  sustenance 
of  all  creatures.  It  is  something  undefined,  to  which  it  is 
difficult  to  assign  a  name,  which  however  may  be  called  Taou, 
for  want  of  a  better." 

Gutzlaff  does  not  name  these  "  two  most  celebrated 
commentators,"  for  it  is  one  of  his  habits  never  to 
quote  authorities  or  to  give  references.  But  any  one 
who  ever  glanced  through  Lau-tsze's  short  booklet 
could  not  have  overlooked  that  these  "  opinions " 
are  simply  loose  and  inaccurate  quotations  from  Lau- 
tsze's  Tau-teh-king. 

Mr.  Meadows,  Chinese  interpreter  in  H.  M.  Civil 
Service,  in  his  book,  The  Chinese  and  Their  Rebel- 
lions, is  not  too  severe  on  Gutzlaff,  when  he  says 
(p.  376) : 


CHRISTIAN  CRITICS   OF  BUDDHISM.  273 

"  Probably  few  men  have  excelled  Dr.  Gutzlaff  in  the  capac- 
ity for  rapidly  inditing  sentences  containing  a  number  of 
propositions  not  one  of  which  should  be  correct.  In  fact  all 
his  labors  are  characterized  by  a  superficiality,  a  lack  of 
thorough  research,  and  a  profusion  of  unfounded  asser- 
tion. " 

Gutzlaff 's  opinions  on  China  and  Buddhism  would 
certainly  not  be  worth  mentioning  if  he  were  not 
sometimes  regarded  and  quoted  as  an  authority 
whose  statements  are  willingly  accepted  on  account 
of  his  supposed  scholarship  and  long  residence  in 
China, 

Gutzlaff  devotes  a  long  chapter  to  religion  ;  speak- 
ing of  Buddhism,  he  says : 

"  The  life  of  the  founder  of  this  idolatry  is  enveloped  in  so 
much  mystery,  that  his  very  existence  has  been  doubted  by 
some,  whilst  others  have  presumed,  that  there  lived  and 
taught,  at  different  periods,  various  persons  of  this  name." 

"  His  name  greatly  varies  according  to  the  countries  where 
his  tenets  have  been  received.  Thus  we  have  it  pronounced 
Budha,  Budhu,  Budse,  Gautema,  Samonokodam,  Fuh,  or  Fo, 
etc.,  all  designating  one  and  the  same  individual." 

As  if  the  title  Buddha,  the  Enlightened  One,  were 
a  name,  and  of  the  same  kind  as  "  Gautama  "  !  Gutz- 
latf  continues : 

"He  inculcated  mercy  towards  animals,  prohibited  the 
killing  of  any  living  creature,  and  enjoined  good-will  towards 
all  mankind.  His  disciples  wrote  down  these  instructions, 
which,  inclusive  of  the  commentaries,  amounted  to  two  hun- 
dred and  thirty-two  volumes.  The  writer  has  perused  several 
of  them  in  the  Siamese  Pale,  and  if  ever  any  work  contained 
nonsense,  it  is  the  religious  code  of  Budhu." 
18 


274      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

Siamese  can  only  be  the  language  spoken  in  Siam, 
and  Pale  (or  as  it  is  now  commonly  spelled  Pali)  is 
the  vernacular  spoken  in  the  kingdom  of  Maghada 
in  Buddha's  time,  which  has  become  the  classical 
language  of  Buddhism.  What  Siamese  Pali  may  be, 
no  one  except  the  Eev.  Mr.  Gutzlaff  knows. 

Gutzlaff  continues  in  the  next  paragraph,  "  his 
[Buddha's]  own  uncle  rose  against  him,"  probably 
meaning  Devadatta,  his  cousin.  He  further  says  : 

"  The  most  superficial  observer  will  discover  in  this  system 
some  resemblance  to  a  spurious  kind  of  Christianity.  If  we  do 
not  admit  that  the  human  mind  will  always  have  recourse  to 
the  same  follies,  we  may  presume  that  these  ceremonies  were 
borrowed  from  the  Nestorians  of  the  seventh  century,  a  period 
which  exactly  coincides  with  a  great  reform  in  the  Tibetian 
system  of  Budhuism. 

"  The  providence  of  God,  in  permitting  so  many  millions 
blindly  to  follow  this  superstition,  is  indeed  mysterious.  We 
can  only  adore  where  we  are  unable  to  comprehend.  Yet, 
amongst  all  pagans,  the  Budhuists  are  the  least  bigoted.  They 
allow  that  other  religions  contain  some  truth,  but  think  that 
their  own  is  the  best,  and  the  most  direct  road  to  heaven. 
Amongst  the  myriads  of  idols  they  worship,  there  are  no 
obscene  representations,  nor  do  they  celebrate  any  orgies." 

We  do  not  doubt  that  Chinese  Buddhism  is  full  of 
distortions  and  superstitions,  but  even  here  we  find 
still  preserved  the  purity,  the  breadth,  and  the  moral 
earnestness  of  the  great  founder  of  the  Eeligion  of 
Enlightenment. 

The  Buddhistic  description  of  Hell,  as  given  by 
Gutzlaff  on  page  224,  diifers  from  the  old-fashioned 
Christian  Hell  only  in  unimportant  details,  and  the 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF    BUDDHISM.  275 

injunction  to  repeat  the  refuge  formula,  O  me  to 
Fuh  !  on  all  occasions  for  the  sake  of  "  having  Fuh 
both  in  the  mind  and  in  the  mouth,"  is  quite  analo- 
gous to  the  constant  repetition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
which  is  practised  in  all  Christian  countries.  The 
worship  of  Fuh,  as  prescribed  by  various  sects,  is 
neither  more  nor  less  pagan  than  the  worship  of 
Christ  among  Christians.  Gutzlaff  quotes  from  a 
Buddhist  work,  the  title  of  which  he  does  not  name, 
the  following  passage : 

"Let  each  seek  a  retired  room,  and  sweep  it  clean;  place 
there  an  image  of  Fuh,  every  day  burn  a  pot  of  pure  incense, 
place  a  cup  of  clean  water,  and  when  evening  comes,  light  a 
lamp  before  the  image.  Whether  painted  on  paper,  or  carved 
in  wood,  the  figure  is  just  the  same  as  the  true  Fuh  ;  let  us 
love  it  as  our  father  and  mother,  venerate  it  as  our  prince  and 
ruler.  Morning  and  evening,  let  us  worship  it  with  sincerity 
and  reverence,  fall  prostrate  before  it  like  the  tumbling  of  a 
mountain,  and  rise  up  with  dignity  like  the  ascent  of  clouds. 
On  leaving  the  room  report  it  [bid  it  farewell] ;  returning,  let 
us  give  notice  [greet  it] ;  and  even  when  we  travel,  at  the  dis- 
tance of  five  or  ten  le,  let  us  act  as  in  the  presence  of  our 
Fuh." 

Among  other  extracts  from  "  native  works,"  Gutz- 
laff quotes  the  following  passage  : 

"  The  laws  of  Budhuism  are  boundless  as  the  ocean,  and  the 
search  after  them  is  as  little  tiresome  as  that  after  precious 
stones.  He  who  has  transgressed  them  ought  to  repent ;  he 
who  never  acted  against  them  may  silently  ponder  upon  them, 
and  thus  know  the  purity  of  exalted  virtue." 

Happening  to  know  this  verse  as  a  formula  in 
common  use  among  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  Bud- 


276      BUDDHISM  AND  ITS  CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

dhists,  I  can  from  memory  point  out  a  few  gross 
mistakes  in  Gutzlaff's  translation,  without  even  hav- 
ing at  present  the  original  at  hand.  It  must  read 
about  as  follows : 

"  The  religion  of  Buddha  is  as  boundless  as  the  ocean. 

The  search  after  it  is  more  remunerative  than  that  after  pre- 
cious stones. 

He  who  has  transgressed  Buddha's  injunctions  ought  to  re- 
pent. 

He  who  has  never  sinned,  may  in  silence  ponder  upon  them. 

Thus  he  will  comprehend  the  purity  of  exalted  virtue." 


O.   VOIGT   AND   ADOLPH    THOMAS. 

From  among  the  German  critics  of  Buddhism  I 
select  for  discussion  two  Protestant  clergymen,  G. 
Voigt  and  Adolph  Thomas,  whose  remarks  seem  to 
me  worthy  of  notice. 

G.Voigt*  declares  that  Buddhism  did  not  origi- 
nate in  the  whim  of  a  maniac  or  in  the  hallucination 
of  an  enthusiast,  but  is  born  out  of  the  very  depths 
of  the  human  heart.  Its  aspirations  remind  us  of 
St.  Paul's  cry :  "  O  wretched  man  that  I  am !  Who 
shall  deliver  me  from  the  body  of  this  death ! " 
(Rom.  vii.  24.)  "  But,"  adds  Mr.  Yoigt,  "  Buddha 
cannot  deliver  mankind,  he  cannot  conquer  the 
world  because  he  denies  it ;  and  he  cannot  deny  the 
world,  because  he  does  not  conquer  it.  Christianity 
alone  is  the  world-religion  because  it  alone  conquers 

*"Buddhismus  und  Christen thum,"  in  Zeitfragen  des  chr. 
Volkslebens.  Heilbronn :  Henninger.  1887. 


CHRISTIAN  CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  277 

the  world"  (p.  19).  "Buddha's  salvation  is  self- 
deliverance,  and  this  is  the  first  and  decisive  condi- 
tion of  the  Buddhistic  Gospel.  It  refers  man,  in 
order  to  gain  his  eternal  salvation,  to  the  proud  but 
utterly  barren  path  of  his  own  deeds  "  (p.  22). 

Here  the  Buddhistic  scheme  of  salvation  is  the 
same  (Voigt  claims,  p.  31)  as  that  of  Goethe's  Faust, 
for  Faust,  too,  does  not  rely  on  the  blood  of  Christ. 
but  has  to  work  out  his  salvation  himself.  Accord- 
ingly, one  main  difference  between  Christ  and 
Buddha  consists  in  this,  that  Christ  is  the  Saviour 
of  mankind  while  Buddha  only  claims  to  be  the 
discoverer  of  a  path  that  leads  to  salvation  (p.  35). 

Mr.  Voigt's  statement  concerning  Buddha's  doc- 
trine of  salvation  is  to  the  point ;  but  we  have  to 
add  that  while  Buddhism  is  indeed  self-salvation, 
Christianity  may,  at  least  in  a  certain  sense,  also  be 
called  self-salvation.  In  another  sense,  Buddhism, 
too,  teaches  the  salvation  of  mankind,  not  through 
self-exertion,  but  through  the  light  of  Buddha. 

Mr.  Voigt  is  a  Protestant  and  a  Lutheran ;  there- 
fore he  presses  the  point  that  we  are  justified  not 
through  our  own  deeds,  but  through  God's  grace 
who  takes  compassion  on  us.  To  Lutherans  it  will 
be  interesting  to  know  that  there  is  a  kind  of  Prot- 
estant sect  among  the  Buddhists  (and  they  are  the 
most  numerous  and  influential  sect  in  Japan),  the 
Shin-Shiu,  who  insist  on  salvation  sola  fide,  through 
faith  alone,  with  the  same  vigor  as  did  Luther.  They 
eat  meat  and  fish,  and  their  priests  marry  as  freely 
as  Evangelical  clergymen.  The  statement  made  by 


278      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

A.  Akamatsu  for  presentation  at  the  World's  relig- 
ious parliament  and  published  in  leaflets  by  the 
Buddhist  Propagation  Society  declares : 

"  Rejecting  all  religious  austerities  and  other  action,  giving 
up  all  the  idea  of  self -power,  we  rely  upon  Amita  Buddha  with 
the  whole  heart,  for  our  salvation  in  the  future  life,  which  is 
the  most  important  thing :  believing  that  at  the  moment  of 
putting  our  faith  in  Amita  Buddha,  our  salvation  is  settled. 
From  that  moment,  invocation  of  his  name  is  observed  to  ex- 
press gratitude  and  thankfulness  for  Buddha's  mercy  ;  more- 
over, being  thankful  for  the  reception  of  this  doctrine  from 
the  founder  and  succeeding  chief  priests  whose  teachings 
were  so  benevolent,  and  as  welcome  as  light  in  a  dark  night ; 
we  must  also  keep  the  laws  which  are  fixed  for  our  duty  during 
our  whole  life." 

Keplace  the  words  "  Amita  Buddha  "  by  "Jesus 
Christ "  and  no  Lutheran  of  the  old  dogmatic  type 
would  make  any  serious  objection  to  this  formula- 
tion of  a  religious  creed. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  points  on  which  Mr.  Yoigt 
fails  to  do  justice  to  Buddhism,  not  because  he 
means  to  be  unfair,  but  because  he  is  absolutely 
unable  to  understand  the  Buddhistic  doctrines. 

Buddhism  in  Mr.  Voigt's  opinion  is  full  of  contra- 
dictions, for  "  the  idea  of  retribution  can  no  longer 
be  upheld  if  there  is  no  ego-unit "  (p.  23),  and  '"  the 
standard  of  Christian  morality  is  God,  but  Bud- 
dhism, ignoring  God,  has  no  such  standard  of 
morality  "  (p.  43).  Voigt  maintains : 

"He  who  denies  the  living  God,  must  consistently  deny 
also  the  living  soul — of  course,  not  the  soul  as  mental  life,  the 
existence  of  which  through  our  experience  is  sufficiently  guar- 


CHRISTIAN    CRITICS    OF    BUDDHISM.  279 

anteed,  but  the  soul  as  the  unit  and  the  personal  centre  of  all 
mental  life.  In  this  sense  Buddhism  denies  the  existence  of  a 
soul"  (p.  22). 

Why  can  the  idea  of  retribution  no  longer  be  up- 
held if  the  soul  is  a  unification  and  not  a  metaphysical 
soul-unit  ?  Why  can  Buddhism  have  no  standard  of 
morality,  if  Buddha's  conception  of  moral  authority 
is  not  that  of  a  personal  being,  but  that  of  an  imma- 
nent law  in  analogy  with  natural  laws  and  in  fact 
only  an  application  of  the  law  of  cause  and  effect  ? 
It  is  the  same  misconception  which  we  found  in  Mr. 
Spence  Hardy's  arguments,  when  he  said  "  There  is 
no  law,  because  there  is  no  law-giver." 

Adolph  Thomas,  another  German  clergyman, 
criticises  Buddhism  in  a  lecture  which  he  delivered 
in  various  cities  of  North  America.  It  bears  the 
title  "A  Sublime  Fool  of  the  Good  Lord."  The  lec- 
ture is  a  curious  piece  of  composition,  for  it  is  a 
glowing  tribute  to  Buddha's  greatness  and  at  the 
same  time  a  vile  jeer  at  his  religion.  Here  is  a  trans- 
lation of  its  best  passages : 

"  I  will  show  unto  you,  dear  friends,  a  sublime  fool  of  the 
Almighty.  Miniature  copies  you  will  find,  not  a  few,  in  the 
large  picture  gallery  of  the  world's  history.  I  show  you  a 
colossal  statue.  It  represents  Shakyamuni,  the  founder  of  the 
first  universal  religion,  to  whom  the  admiring  generations  of 
after-ages  gave  the  honoring  title  of  Buddha,  i.  e.,  the  Enlight- 
ened One.  Out  of  the  dawn  of  remote  antiquity,  through  the 
mist  of  legendary  lore,  his  grand  figure  looms  up  to  us  belated 
mortals,  lofty  as  the  summit  of  the  Himalayas  towering  into 
the  clouds  above.  He  stands  upon  the  heights  of  Oriental 
humanity,  his  divine  head  enveloped  by  the  clouds  of  incense, 


280      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

sending  his  praise  upwards  from  millions  of  temples.  The 
equal  rival  of  Jesus  Christ  cannot  be  otherwise  than  sublime. 

' '  Buddha  possesses  that  soul-stirring  sublimity  which  wins 
the  hearts  with  a  double  charm,  by  the  contrast  of  natural 
dignity  and  voluntary  humiliation,  of  nobility  of  mind  and 
kindness  of  soul.  This  son  of  a  king,  who  stretches  forth  his 
hand  to  the  timid  and  rag-covered  Tshandala  girl,  saying  : 
'  My  daughter,  my  law  is  a  law  of  grace  for  all  men,'  appears 
at  once  as  winning  souls  and  as  commanding  respect.  The 
cry  of  woe  with  which  he  departs  from  the  luxurious  royal 
chambers,  full  of  sweet  music  and  pleasures  of  the  table, 
full  of  the  beauty  of  women  and  the  joys  of  love  ;  ;  Woe  is  me  ! 
I  am  indeed  upon  a  charnel  field  ! '  thrills  the  very  soul.  The 
alms-begging  hermit,  to  whose  sublime  mind  royal  highness 
was  too  low,  the  splendors  of  court  too  mean,  the  power  of 
a  ruler  too  small,  must  have  inspired  with  reverence  even 
the  gluttonous  and  amorous  epicurean.  A  prince  who  was 
capable  of  mortifying  soul  and  body  by  retirement,  fasting, 
and  meditation  during  six  long  years  to  find  a  deliverance 
from  the  ocean  of  sorrows  for  all  sentient  beings,  bears  in- 
deed the  stamp  of  those  staunch  and  mighty  men  of  character, 
who  are  able  to  sacrifice  everything  for  an  idea.  '  Son  con- 
stant heroisme,'  says  the  latest  French  biographer  of  the 
ancient  founder  of  Buddhism,  concerning  his  character, 
'  egale  sa  conviction.  II  est  le  modele  acheve  de  tous  les  vertus 
qu'il  preche.' 

"  Buddha  towers  above  the  ordinary  teacher  not  less  by  his 
intellectual  geniality,  than  by  his  moral  excellence.  Five 
hundred  years  before  the  birth  of  Christ  did  this  far-seeing 
thinker  anticipate  the  most  far-reaching  views  in  the  field  of 
natural  sciences  and  the  freest  social  advances  of  the  nine- 
teenth century.  This  very  ancient  saint  of  the  interior  of 
Asia  was  a  champion  of  free  thought  and  liberty  after  the 
most  modern  conception.  He  looked  at  the  world  with  the 
unprejudiced  eye  of  a  scientist  of  modern  times,  seeing  in  it  a 
chain  of  causes  and  effects  in  continuous  change,  birth  and 
death,  forever  repeating  themselves,  or  perhaps  with  the  short- 
sightedness of  a  fashionable  materialist,  seeing  in  it  nothing 


CHKJSTIAN   CRITICS   OF  BUDDHISM.  281 

but  the  product  of  matter  which  to  him  exists  exclusively. 
A  priest  of  humanity  centuries  before  a  Christ  and  Paul  broke 
through  the  barriers  of  the  Jewish  ceremonial  service,  thou- 
sands of  years  before  a  Lessing  and  Herder  preached  the  newly- 
discovered  gospel  of  pure  humanity,  Buddha  revealed  to  the 
people  of  India  and  China,  to  Mongolians,  Malayans,  the  never- 
heard-of  truth  that  upon  the  earth  and  in  heaven  humanity 
alone  had  merit. 

"  The  moral  code  of  Buddhism  has  given  a  purer  expression 
to  natural  morality  and  has  kept  it  more  free  from  natural 
prejudices  and  religious  admixtures  than  any  of  the  later 
religions. 

"  Buddha  already  held  high  the  banner  of  philanthropic 
sympathy,  which  is  perhaps  the  acknowledged  symbol  of  mod- 
ern ethics,  and  before  which  in  our  times  even  the  arms  of 
war  give  way.  The  humane  demand  that  capital  punishment 
be  abolished,  which  Christianity  only  now,  after  nineteen 
centuries  begins  to  emphasize,  had  already  been  realized  in 
Buddhistic  countries  shortly  after  the  death  of  the  founder  of 
their  religion.  And  in  regard  to  his  efforts  upon  the  field  of 
social  policy,  I  venture  to  call  the  reformer  of  India  the  bold- 
est champion  who  has  ever  fought  for  the  holy  cause  of  liberty; 
for  the  tyranny,  which  he  fought— that  of  the  Brahman 
castes — was  the  most  outrageous  violation  of  the  rights  of 
man,  and  he  that  fought  it  was — according  to  the  legend — 
the  descendant  of  an  Oriental  dynasty  which  was  of  course, 
as  every  one  of  them,  a  sneer  upon  the  liberty  of  the  people. 

"  Sublime  in  his  earthly  career  by  his  personal  worth,  Buddha 
has  still  been  more  elevated  in  his  immortality  by  the  extent 
and  power  of  his  historical  effects.  He  is  one  of  the  spiritual 
kings,  whose  kingdom  is  without  end  and  whose  train-bearers 
are  nations.  The  dark  chasm  of  oblivion  into  which  two 
thousand  years  have  sunk,  has  not  even  dimmed  his  memory. 
Following  the  track  of  the  victorious  sun,  his  illustrious  name 
has  appeared  like  a  brilliant  meteor  to  us  also,  the  inhabitants 
of  the  Far  West,  the  sons  of  Europe  and  America.  He  who 
is  adored  like  a  god  by  three  hundred  and  seventy  millions 
of  people  in  Asia,  took  captive  also  not  a  few  strong  minds 


282      BUDDHISM    AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

of  the  German  civilized  countries.     Philosophers  and  poets 
like  Schopenhauer  and  Kinkel  worshipped  at  his  shrine. 

"  His  words  sound  in  our  eai's,  also,  like  words  of  authority. 
The  dignified  pathos  that  pervades  them  conquers  the  souls. 

'  Not  even  feasting  with  the  gods 
Brings  rest  unto  the  truly  wise ; 
Who's  wise  indeed  doth  but  rejoice 
That  no  desires  within  him  rise.' 

"The  sublimity  that  lies  in  his  description  of  his  blessed 
Nirvana  is  affecting  :  '  I  have  attained  unto  the  highest  wis- 
dom, I  am  without  desires,  I  wish  for  nothing ;  I  am  without 
selfishness,  personal  sentiment,  stubbornness,  enmity.  Until 
now  I  was  full  of  hatred,  passion,  error,  a  slave  of  con- 
ditions, of  birth,  of  age,  of  sickness,  of  grief,  of  pain,  of 
sorrow,  of  cares,  of  misfortune.  May  many  thousands  leave 
their  homes,  live  as  saints,  and  after  they  have  lived  a  life  of 
meditation,  and  discarded  lust,  be  born  again.' 

"  From  the  sublime  to  the  ridiculous  there  is  but  one  step. 
I  must  laugh  when  I  think  of  a  group  of  three  Japanese  idols. 
This  stone  monument  from  the  history  of  Buddhism  appears 
as  a  comically  disgusting  caricature  of  the  Christian  trinity. 

"  Here  a  striking  connexion  comes  to  the  surface.  A  des- 
piser  of  the  gods  became  the  forerunner  of  worshippers  of 
idols ;  Buddha's  doctrine  of  liberty  brought  in  its  train  the 
tyranny  of  priests,  his  enlightened  views,  superstition  ;  his 
humanity,  the  empty  ceremonies  of  sacerdotal  deceivers.  His 
attempt  at  education  and  emancipation  of  the  people  without 
a  god  was  followed  by  a  period  of  a  senseless  and  stupefying 
subjugation  of  the  people  ;  a  striking  contrast  and  lamentable 
failure  indeed  ! 

>'  What  an  irony  of  fate.  Fate  had  different  intentions  from 
Buddha  and  forced  Buddha  to  do  that  which  was  contrary  to 
what  he  intended.  Like  a  hunted  deer  which  falls  into  the 
net  of  those  from  whom  it  fled,  like  a  deceived  fool  who 
accomplishes  foreign  aims  against  his  will  and  knowledge, 
thus  India's  sublime  prince  of  spirits  lies  before  us,  adjudged 
by  the  power  of  fate  from  which  no  one  can  escape.  One  is 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS    OF   BUDDHISM.  288 

reminded  of  the  Jewish  poetry  of  old  :  '  He  that  sitteth  in  the 
heavens  shall  laugh,  the  Lord  shall  have  him  in  derision.' 
In  derision  did  he,  who  governs  the  fates  of  men,  place  the 
fool's  cap  upon  that  noble  head.  The  comedies  of  Aristo- 
phanes are  praised,  because  a  bitter  seriousness  is  heard  in 
their  droll  laughter.  The  great  author  of  the  world's  drama 
has  after  all  composed  a  far  better  satire  than  the  best  comic 
poet  of  this  earth.  The  monster  tragi-comedy,  Buddha  and 
Buddhism,  which  he  wrote  into  the  chronicles  of  the  world, 
moves  not  only  the  diaphragm,  but  the  heart  also." 

The  rest  of  Mr.  Thomas's  lecture  consits  of  caustic 
complaints  on  the  increase  of  atheism  in  Christian 
countries.  Natural  science,  he  says,  is  materialistic. 
Schopenhauer's  pessimism  is  gaining  ascendency  in 
philosophy,  and  theology  tends  either  to  the  infidel 
liberalism  of  D.  Fr.  Strauss  or  favors  a  reaction  that 
will  strengthen  the  authority  of  the  Pope.  Every- 
where extremes!  He  concludes  one  of  his  har 
rangues : 

"  It  darkens !  We  are  Buddhists  and  not  Christians.  .  .  . 
Bless  us,  O  Shakyamuni  Gautama,  '  master  of  cows' — which 
is  the  literal  translation  of  'Gautama.'  Why  did  your  wor- 
shippers not  call  you  '  master  of  oxen'  ?  " 

Strange  that  one  who  ridicules  Buddha  cannot 
help  extolling  him  in  the  highest  terms  of  admira- 
tion. Mr.  Thomas  sets  out  with  the  purpose  of 
calling  Buddha  a  fool,  but  the  subject  of  his  speech 
and  the  greatness  of  the  founder  of  Buddhism  carry 
him  along  so  as  to  change  his  abuse  into  an  anthem 
of  praise.  He  is  like  Balaam,  who  went  out  to  curse 
Israel  but  cannot  help  blessing  it.  And  what  can 
he  say  against  Buddha  to  substantiate  his  harsh 


284      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

judgment  ?  The  same  things  can  be  said  of  Christ, 
for  the  irony  of  fate  is  not  less  apparent  in  the  history 
of  the  un-Christ-like  Christian  church  than  in  the 
development  of  the  un-Buddha-like  Buddhism. 

The  same  objections  again  and  again !  Buddha 
was  an  atheist  and  denied  the  existence  of  the  soul. 
The  truth  is  that  while  the  Buddhist  terminology 
radically  differs  from  the  Christian  mode  of  naming 
things,  the  latter  being  more  mythological,  both 
religions  agree  upon  the  whole  in  ethics,  and  the 
spirit  of  their  doctrines  is  more  akin  than  their 
orthodox  representatives,  who  cling  to  the  letter  of 
the  dogma,  are  aware  of. 

SIR   MONIER   MONIEK-WILLTAMS. 

Among  the  scholarly  authors,  of  university  pro- 
fessors who  have  written  on  Buddhism,  Sir  Monier 
Monier-Williams,  Boden  Professor  of  Sanskrit  at 
Oxford,  is  one  of  the  most  distinguished  and  prom- 
inent authorities.  Not  only  are  his  Sanskrit  Dic- 
tionary, Grammar,  and  Manual  standard  works  of 
philological  scholarship,  but  also  his  translations 
exhibit  the  genius  of  a  poet  who  can  re-think  and 
re-feel  the  ideas  of  bards  who  lived  in  ages  long  past 
and  uttered  thoughts  which  it  is  difficult  for  us  to 
comprehend  in  their  original  significance.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  but  Sir  Monier  Monier-Williams's 
books  -on  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism  and  on  Bud- 
dhism give  us  most  reliable  and  instructive  informa- 
tion concerning  the  two  great  religions  of  India,  and 


CHRISTIAN  CRITICS   OF  BUDDHISM.  285 

I  confess  that  their  study  has  proved  to  me  extremely 
profitable.  But  one  point  challenges  my  opposi- 
tion ;  it  is,  not  that  he  writes  from  the  standpoint 
of  a  Christian,  for  he  has  not  only  a  right,  but  is 
even  under  the  obligation,  to  do  so  ;  nor  is  it  that  his 
works  possess  the  character  of  contributions  to 
Christian  apologetics,  a  mission  which  is  implied  in 
the  duties  of  the  Boden  professorship  held  by  him  : 
it  is  that  he  narrows  Christianity  to  the  dogmatic 
conception  of  the  Anglican  church  creeds,  and  estab- 
lishes on  this  ground  distinctions  which,  if  tenable, 
will  not,  as  Sir  Monier  believes,  lift  Christianity 
above  Buddhism,  but,  on  the  contrary,  would  give 
the  first  place  to  Buddhism  and  annul  all  the  claims 
that  Christianity  may  make  to  catholicity. 

Professor  Williams  openly  states  that  he  has  "  de- 
picted Buddhism  from  the  standpoint  of  a  believer 
in  Christianity  "  (p.  ix),  and  when  delivering  in  1888 
his  Duff-Lectures  which  form  the  nucleus  of  his  book 
on  Buddhism,  he  expressed  his  "  deep  sense  of  the 
responsibility  which  the  writing  of  these  Lectures 
had  laid  upon  him  and  his  earnest  desire  that  they 
may  by  their  usefulness  prove  in  some  degree 
worthy  of  the  great  missionary  whose  name  they 
bear."  *  Even  the  title  of  the  book  announces  that 
Buddhism  is  treated  "  in  its  contrast  with  Christian- 
ity. " 

After  these  statements  we  are  prepared  for  an  ex 
parte  exposition  of  Buddha's  doctrines  which,  how- 
ever, considering  the  antagonistic  attitude  of  Sir 
*  Quoted  literally,  only  changing  "me"  into  "him." 


286      BUDDHISM    AND   ITS    CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

Monier  Monier-Williams  is  as  just  and  fair  as  can  be 
expected.  The  book  is  valuable  on  account  of  its 
author's  unquestionable  ability  in  selecting  and 
marshalling  his  materials  in  a  masterly  way,  but  it 
is  marred  by  repeated  attempts  to  belittle  Buddha, 
"  who,"  Sir  Monier  says,  "  if  not  worthy  to  be  called 
the  'Light of  Asia,'  and  certainly  unworthy  of  com- 
parison with  the  'Light  of  the  World,'  was  at  least 
one  of  the  world's  most  successful  teachers."  In 
spite  of  Buddha's  alleged  unworthiness  to  be  com- 
pared with  Christ,  Sir  Monier  compares  the  two 
constantly ;  he  does  so  in  spite  of  himself,  and  all 
Christians  do  so  and  cannot  help  doing  so,  because 
the  comparison  forces  itself  upon  every  one  who 
familiarizes  himself  with  the  lives  of  these  two 
greatest  religious  leaders  of  mankind. 

Professor  Williams  is  undoubtedly  anxious  to  be 
just  toward  Buddha,  but  we  cannot  help  taking  him 
to  task  for  a  certain  animosity  which  is  shown  in 
occasional  distortions  of  the  accounts  of  Buddha's 
life  and  doctrines.  Thus  he  says,  when  Buddha 
preached  to  his  disciples,  his  sermon  "  was  addressed 
to  monks,"  while  "  that  of  Christ  was  addressed  not 
to  monks  but  to  suffering  sinners  "  (p.  44V  as  if  the 
disciples  of  Christ  were  not  in  the  same  predica- 
ment as  the  monks  that  followed  Buddha;  for 
Christ's  disciples,  too,  had  forsaken  their  homes  in 
order  to  devote  themselves  exclusively  to  the  salva- 
tion of  their  souls.  The  term  "  monk  "  smacks  of  a 
Roman  Catholic  institution  that  has  become  odious 
in  Protestant  countries.  On  the  other  hand,  the 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  287 

word  "  sinner  "  expresses  a  self-humiliation  popular 
in  certain  Christian  circles  only,  but  offensive  to 
those  who  believe  in  the  dignity  of  man.  Albeit, 
whether  monks  or  sinners,  both  the  disciples  of  Bud- 
dha and  Christ  were  salvation-seeking  men. 

An  actual  misrepresentation,  prompted  by  an  un- 
conscious disdain  for  Buddha,  lies  in  the  following 


"  The  story  is  that  Gautama  died  from  eating  too  much 
pork  (or  dried  boar's  flesh).  As  this  is  somewhat  derogatory 
to  his  dignity  it  is  not  likely  to  have  been  fabricated.  A 
fabrication,  too,  would  scarcely  make  him  guilty  of  the  in- 
consistency of  saying  '  Kill  no  living  thing,'  and  yet  setting 
an  example  of  eating  flesh-meat." 

The  fact  is  that  according  to  theMahaparinibbana 
Sutta  Buddha's  last  meal  consisted  of  "  dried  boar's 
food,"  which  in  later  works  was  interpreted  to  mean 
"  dried  boar's  meat  "  ;  but  it  is  not  impossible  that 
"  boar's  food  "  denotes  some  mushroom  or  root  that 
was  eagerly  eaten  by  pigs.  Thus  it  is  not  quite  cer- 
tain that  Buddha's  last  meal  consisted  of  meat ;  yet 
we  grant  that  Buddha  ate  meat.  Nevertheless,  there 
is  no  report  which  states  that  Buddha  ate  "  too 
much,"  we  are  only  told  that  the  meat  was  not  fit  to 
eat.  Whatever  "  boar's  food "  may  have  meant 
Buddha  taught  that  salvation  could  not  be  obtained 
by  abstinence  from  meat  alone  but  by  purity  of  heart. 
Professor  Williams  probably  remembers  the  Ama- 
gandha-sutta  which  sets  forth  that  evil  habits,  wicked 
deeds,  and  impure  thoughts  defile  a  man,  but  not  the 


288      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

eating  of  flesh —  a  declaration  seven  times  empha- 
sized in  the  refrain  of  the  verses  4-10. 

Accordingly,  there  is  no  inconsistency  in  Buddha's 
eating  meat,  yet  as  to  the  statement  that  Buddha 
ate  "  too  much,"  we  can  only  say  that  it  is  an  unjus- 
tifiable accusation  which  we  confidently  hope  Pro- 
fessor Williams  will  expunge  from  eventual  future 
editions  of  his  book.  Buddha  probably  often  enough 
ate  disgusting  food  on  his  wanderings  through  the 
country  of  Magadha,  for  he  was  not  always  the 
guest  of  kings,  but  more  often  a  recipient  of  the 
hospitality  of  poor  villagers — a  fact  which  is  not 
only  in  itself  probable,  but  is  actually  mentioned  in 
various  Chinese  accounts  of  Buddha's  life,  as,  for 
instance,  in  the  Fo-Sho-IIing-Tsan-King.  Consider- 
ing the  hot  climate  of  India,  too,  it  is  not  impro- 
bable, that  the  meat  Buddha  ate  for  his  last  meal 
was  tainted.  Such  in  fact  is  the  report  of  the  Maha- 
parinibbana  Sutta,  IV.,  19,  where  we  read  : 

"  Now  the  Blessed  One  addressed  Chunda,  the  worker  in 
metals,  and  said :  '  Whatever  dried  boar's  flesh,  Chunda,  is 
left  over  to  thee,  that  bury  in  a  hole.  I  see  no  one,  Chunda, 
on  earth  nor  in  Mara's  domain,  nor  in  the  Brahma's  heaven,  no 
one  among  Samanas  and  Bramanas,  among  gods  and  men,  by 
whom,  when  he  has  eaten  it,  that  food  can  be  assimilated, 
save  by  the  Tathagata. 

"  '  Even  so,  Lord  ! '  said  Chunda,  the  worker  in  metals,  in 
assent,  to  the  Blessed  One.  And  whatever  dried  boar's  flesh 
remained  over,  that  he  buried  in  a  hole." 

In  the  face  of  death,  and  suffering  from  the  pains 
of  the  consequence  of  his  last  meal,  Buddha  reveals 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  289 

a  nobility  of  character,  which  shows  that  he  was  not 
only  great,  but  also  amiable.  When  Buddha  felt 
that  his  end  drew  near,  he  said  : 

"  Now  it  may  happen,  Ananda,  that  some  one  should  stir 
up  remorse  in  Chunda,  the  smith,  by  saying,  '  This  is  evil  to 
thee,  Chunda,  and  loss  to  thee  in  that  when  the  Tathagata 
had  eaten  his  last  meal  from  thy  provision,  then  he  died. 
Any  such  remorse,  Ananda,  in  Chunda,  the  smith,  should  be 
checked  by  saying,  '  This  is  good  to  thee,  Chunda,  and  gain  to 
thee,  in  that  when  the  Tathagata  had  eaten  his  last  meal  from 
thy  provision,  then  he  died.  .  .  .  There  has  been  laid  up  by 
Chunda,  the  smith,  a  karma  redounding  to  length  of  life,  re- 
dounding to  good  birth,  redounding  to  good  fortune,  redound- 
ing to  good  fame,  redounding  to  the  inheritance  of  heaven, 
and  of  sovereign  power.'  In  this  way,  Ananda,  should  be 
checked  any  remorse  in  Chunda,  the  smith." 

While  Buddha  rejected  the  idea  of  obtaining  sal- 
vation through  abstinence  from  flesh  food,  he  cer- 
tainly did  not  encourage  the  slaughter  of  animals 
for  the  sake  of  making  food  of  them.  Thus  a  great 
number  of  Buddhists  abstain  from  eating  fish  and 
meat;  but  there  are  some  Buddhists  (I  refer,  for 
instance,  to  the  Shin-Shiu,  the  largest  sect  of  Japan) 
who  do  eat  fish  and  flesh,  and  they  are  recognized 
as  good  Buddhists  as  much  as  Lutherans  may  be 
called  good  Christians. 

There  is  no  need  of  picking  out  all  the  passages 
in  Sir  Monier  Monier-Williams's  book  on  Buddhism 
which  appear  to  be  dictated  by  a  partisan  spirit 
favoring  a  dogmatic  conception  of  Christianity  and 
apt  to  prove  offensive  to  the  followers  of  Buddha. 
I  shall,  therefore,  limit  my  critical  remarks  to  the 


290      BUDDHISM  AND  ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

last  chapter  of  the  book,  entitled  "  Buddhism,  con- 
trasted with  Christianity  "  (pp.  337-563). 

Professor  Williams  says  :  "  Christianity  is  a  reli- 
gion, whereas  Buddhism,  at  least  in  its  earliest  and 
truest  form,  is  no  religion  at  all."  And  why  not  ? 
Because 

"  A  religion,  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word,  must  postulate 
the  existence  of  one  living  and  true  God  of  infinite  power, 
wisdom,  and  love,  the  Creator,  Designer,  and  Preserver  of 
all  things  visible  and  invisible.  It  must  also  take  for  granted 
the  immortality  of  man's  soul  or  spirit.  .  .  .  Starting  from 
these  assumptions,  it  must  satisfy  four  requisites :  (1)  it  must 
reveal  the  Creator,  (2)  it  must  reveal  man  to  himself,  (3)  it 
must  reveal  some  method  by  which  the  finite  creature  may 
communicate  with  the  infinite  Creator,  (4)  it  must  prove  its 
title  to  be  called  a  religion  by  its  regenerating  effect  on  man's 
nature." 

We  must  add  that  Professor  Williams  apparently 
understands  by  God  and  soul  the  traditional  concep- 
tions of  dogmatic  Christianity  ;  and  his  faith  in  God 
and  soul  is  a  mere  "  postulate,"  for  in  the  realm  of 
experience  no  trace  can  be  found  of  either.  Thus 
our  knowledge  of  both  must  be  attributed  to  a  special 
and  supernatural  revelation.  The  word  "  reveal " 
in  the  passage  quoted  is  intended  to  be  understood 
in  the  narrow  sense,  as  opposed  to  the  revelations  of 
the  senses  and  of  science. 

What  a  poor  comfort  is  the  belief  in  a  postulated 
and  specially  revealed  God !  A  postulated  God  is 
distant  and  hidden — even  to  the  sages  of  the  most 
enlightened  pagans.  We  are  informed  that  what 
they,  the  "  unaided,"  know  of  noble  and  elevating 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF  BUDDHISM.  291 

truths  is  a  mere  natural  product  of  their  investiga- 
tion ;  it  is  at  best  what  any  scientist  can  discover  by 
the  usual  methods  of  scientific  inquiry.  Their  God, 
it  appears,  can  only  be  the  God  of  the  Eeligion  of 
Science,  who  is  the  divinity  of  existence,  the  eternal 
condition  of  man's  rationality,  the  standard  of  all 
truth,  and  the  authority  of  right  and  justice ;  but 
not  a  metaphysical  ego-deity  whose  existence  can 
only  be  known  by  an  act  of  special  revelation. 

We  must  add  that,  in  our  opinion,  the  God  of  dog- 
matism is  not  the  God  of  the  Israelitic  prophets,  nor 
of  Paul,  nor  of  Christ.  The  founders  of  Chris- 
tianity were  as  broad  as  Socrates,  as  Lau-tsze,  and 
even  as  Buddha — though  Buddha  was  the  broadest 
of  all.  They  prolaimed  no  Quicunque  /  the'  condi- 
tion of  salvation  which  they  held  out  to  the  poor  in 
spirit  resembled  closely  the  Dharma  of  Buddha,  but 
not  the  Thirty -nine  Articles  of  the  Anglican  Church, 
nor  the  confession  of  faith  of  any  other  Christian 
church.  It  would  take  too  much  space  to  reprint 
any  one  of  them,  be  it  the  Augustana  of  the  Luther- 
ans, or  the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Episcopalians, 
or  the  Westminster  Confession,  or  the  decrees  of  the 
Tridentinum,  or  a  papal  bull,  perhaps  the  famous 
bull  of  Innocence  VIII.,  issued  in  1484,  which  brought 
the  terrors  of  the  witch  persecutions  down  on 
Europe.* 

There  is  none  of  these  but  contains  the  most  irra- 
tional and  even  barbarous  and  immoral  propositions 

*  The  bull  is  known  by  its  initial  words  :  "  Summis  deside- 
rantes  affectibus." 


292      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

proclaimed  in  the  name  of  God  and  professing  to  be 
the  true  and  orthodox  interpretation  of  God's  revela- 
tion. Compare  any  one  Avith  Buddha's  Dharma, 
which  is  briefly  condensed  in  the  famous  stanza : 

"  To  abandon  all  wrong-doing, 
To  lead  a  virtuous  life 
And  cleanse  one's  heart. 
That  is  the  religion  of  all  Buddhas." 

Buddha's  religion  is  very  much  like  that  of  Christ, 
but  it  differs  greatly  from  the  Christianity  of  Chris- 
tian dogmatism.  Christ  requests  men  to  have  faith 
(i.  e.,  Hebrew  amunah,  firmness  of  character,  or 
Greek  TriWt?,  faithfulness  or  fidelity),  which  is  amoral 
quality  implying  steadfast  confidence  ;  the  churches 
demand  belief,  i.  e.  taking  something  for  granted. 
We  cannot  live  without  faith,  but  we  can  very  well 
exist  without  belief,  for  we  can  be  faithful  in  the 
performance  of  our  duties,  the  correctness  of  which 
we  may  be  able  to  know  and  understand.  In  fact, 
whenever  belief  is  necessary,  it  plays  a  mere  tempo- 
rary part,  for  we  must  strive  with  might  and  main 
to  replace  it  by  knowledge. 

Measured  by  the  standard  of  Professor  Williams's 
religious  ideal,  (which,  being  the  Christianity  of 
belief,  not  of  faith,  starts,  as  he  expressly  states  it, 
from  "  assumptions,"  and  is  based  upon  a  "  taking 
for  granted,")  Buddhism  is  no  religion  at  all.  For, 
says  he  of  Buddhism  : 

"  It  failed  to  satisfy  these  conditions.  It  refused  to  admit 
the  existence  of  a  personal  Creator,  or  of  man's  dependence 
on  a  higher  Power.  It  denied  any  eternal  soul  or  Ego  in  man. 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  298 

It  acknowledged  no  external,  supernatural  revelation.  It  had 
no  priesthood — no  real  clergy  ;  no  real  prayer  ;  no  real  worship. 
It  had  no  true  idea  of  sin,  or  of  the  need  of  pardon,  and  it  con- 
demned man  to  suffer  the  consequences  of  his  own  sinful  acts 
without  hope  of  help  from  any  Saviour  or  Redeemer,  arid  in- 
deed from  any  being  but  himself." 

Now,  as  I  understand  Buddhism,  all  these  draw- 
backs are  its  greatest  glory  ;  and  if  there  is  any 
truth  in  Christianity,  Christianity  also  must  possess 
these  very  same  features. 

Professor  Williams  says  on  page  14  : 

"  Buddhism — with  no  God  higher  than  the  perfect  man — 
has  no  pretensions  to  be  called  a  religion  in  the  true  sense  of 
the  word." 

Remember  that  Christ  was  crucified  on  the  charge 
of  blasphemy.  If  the  dogmas  of  Christianity  have 
any  meaning  at  all,  they  proclaim  this  central  truth 
of  all  genuine  religion,  that  the  Deity  is  revealed  in 
humanity  ;  God  is  nothing  more  nor  less  than  those 
eternal  conditions  of  being  which  beget  man — i.  e., 
the  rational  and  morally  aspiring  being.  Christ  is 
God's  equal.  God  is  the  Father,  Christ  is  the  Son  ; 
and  the  Son  and  the  Father  are  one.  In  a  word,  the 
significance  of  Christianity  is  that  God  reveals  him- 
self in  the  perfect  man.  The  ideal  of  human  perfec- 
tion is  identical  with  true  divinity. 

Buddhism  developed  the  idea  of  Amitabha  Buddha, 
personifying  in  him  the  omnipresent  conditions  of 
enlightenment.  There  is  no  God  higher  than  Bud- 
dha, and  there  is  nothing  greater  in  God  than  that 
which  produces  the  ideal  of  a  perfect  man. 


294      BUDDHISM    AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

But  Buddhism  denies  the  existence  of  "  a  soul  or 
ego."  Very  well !  Did  Christ  ever  teach  that  the  soul 
of  man  is  his  ego  ?  If  the  belief  in  an  ego-soul  were 
one  of  the  essential  ingredients  of  "  a  religion  in  the 
proper  sense  of  the  word,"  Christ  should  have  enlight- 
ened us  about  it.  He  did  nothing  of  the  kind,  and 
this  being  so,  we  must  begin  seriously  to  doubt 
whether  Christ  ever  taught  a  religion  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word.  Indeed  if  Buddha's  doctrine  of 
the  soul  is  nihilistic  and  pessimistic,  we  must  say  the 
same  of  St.  Paul,  for  he  declares  that  he  himself  has 
been  crucified  with  Christ,  and  that  not  he  himself, 
i.  e.,  Paul,  liveth,  but  Christ  liveth  in  him. 

As  to  prayer  we  can  only  say  that  Christ  did  his 
best  to  abolish  "  real  prayer,"  (that  is,  prayer  in  the 
sense  of  begging)  by  instituting  for  it  the  Lord's 
prayer,  which  is  no  prayer  in  the  proper  sense  of  the 
word.  Christ  said  :  "  When  thou  prayest  thou  shalt 
not  be  as  the  hypocrites  are  ;  .  .  .  when  ye  pray  use 
not  vain  repetitions  as  the  heathen  do,  ...  your 
father  knoweth  what  things  ye  have  need  of,  before 
ye  ask  him."  The  Lord's  prayer,  accordingly,  is  a 
prayer  which  contains  no  prayers  whatever ;  the 
fourth  supplication,  "give  us  -this  day  our  dailv 
bread,"  appears  as  a  request,  but  considered  in  the 
context  of  the  whole  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  we  find 
that  Christ  emphasizes  the  word  "  this  day,"  which 
must  be  interpreted  as  nothing  else  than  the  injunc- 
tion "  Take  no  thought  for  the  morrow  !  " 

The  same  is  true  of  the  fifth  supplication.  "  For- 
give us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive  those  who  tres- 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS    OF   BUDDHISM.  295 

pass  against  us."  The  burden  of  these  words  lies  in 
the  clause  introduced  by  "  as,"  which  again  is  no 
prayer,  but  contains  a  vow. 

The  Lord's  prayer  is  not  so  much  addressed  to 
God  who  "  knoweth  what  things  we  have  need  of," 
but  to  the  person  who  wants  to  pray.  It  is  no  beg- 
ging, but  a  self-discipline.  It  satisfies  a  craving  which 
is  natural  in  weak-hearted  persons,  in  adult  children, 
but  unworthy  of  a  man.  In  the  form  of  a  prayer, 
the  Lord's  prayer  weans  Christians  of  praying.  It 
teaches  man  no  longer  to  pray,  or  to  attempt  to 
change  the  will  of  God,  but  to  change  the  will  of 
the  praying  person  by  saying  "not  my  will  but 
God's  will  must  be  done."  "  Real  prayer  "  is  a  hea- 
thenish notion  implicating  the  heart  in  hypocrisy. 

If  there  is  any  philosopher  of  weight  who  can  be 
called  Christian  it  is  Kant.  Educated  by  pious  par- 
ents, and  himself  deeply  religious,  he  preserved  of 
the  faith  of  his  childhood  as  much  as  possible  ;  and 
hear  what  he  says  about  prayer : 

"  To  expect  of  prayer  other  than  natural  effects  is  foolish 
and  needs  no  explicit  refutation.  We  can  only  ask,  Is  not 
prayer  to  be  retained  for  the  sake  of  its  natural  effects  ? 
Among  the  natural  effects  we  count  that  the  dark  and  con- 
fused ideas  present  in  the  soul  are  either  clarified  througli 
prayer,  or  that  they  receive  a  higher  degree  of  intensity ;  that 
the  motives  of  a  virtue  receive  greater  efficacy,  etc.,  etc. 

"  We  have  to  say  that  prayer  can,  for  the  reasons  adduced, 
be  recommended  only  subjectively,  for  he  who  can  in  another 
way  attain  to  the  effects  for  which  prayer  is  recommended 
will  not  be  in  need  of  it. 

"  A  man  may  think,  '  If  I  pray  to  God,  it  can  hurt  me  in  no 
wise  ;  for  should  he  not  exist,  very  well !  in  that  case  I  have 


296      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

done  too  much  of  a  good  thing  ;  but  if  he  does  exist,  it  will 
help  me.'  This  Prosopopoeia  (face-making)  is  hypocrisy,  for 
we  have  to  presuppose  in  prayer  that  he  who  prays  is  firmly 
convinced  that  God  exists. 

"  The  consequence  of  this  is  that  he  who  has  made  great 
moral  progress  ceases  to  pray,  for  honesty  is  one  of  his  prin- 
cipal maxims.  And  further,  that  those  whom  one  surprises 
in  prayer  are  ashamed  of  themselves. 

"  In  public  sermons  before  the  public,  prayer  must  be  re- 
tained, because  it  can  be  rhetorically  of  great  effect,  and  can 
make  a  great  impression.  Moreover,  in  sermons  before  the 
people  one  has  to  appeal  to  their  sensuality,  and  must,  as 
much  as  possible,  stoop  down  to  them." 

The  Buddhist  prayer  is  of  the  same  nature  as  the 
Lord's  prayer,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  conceive  it 
and  as  Kant  would  have  interpreted  its  purport.  It 
is  no  longer  a  prayer  in  the  proper  sense  of  the 
word ;  it  is  a  vow.  Like  the  Lord's  prayer,  the 
Buddhist  vows  teach  men  to  take  refuge  in  religion, 
and  that  is  more  than  any  "  real  prayer  "  can  ask  or 
do  for  us.  . 

Professor  Williams  says  (p.(  544),  "  the  main  idea 
implied  by  Buddhism  is  intellectual  enlightenment/' 
With  all  deference  to  Professor  Williams's  knowl- 
edge of  the  significance  of  Buddhist  doctrines,  we 
must  beg  him  to  omit  the  word  "  intellectual." 
Buddha's  idea  of  enlightenment  "  (in  contradistinc- 
tion to  Christian  dogmatism)  certainly  includes  "  in- 
tellectual enlightenment,"  but  it  is  first  and  last  and 
mainly  an  enlightenment  of  the  heart. 

Professor  Williams  says : 

"What  says  our  Bible?  We  Christians,  it  says,  are  mem- 
bers of  Christ's  Body— of  His  flesh  and  of  His  bones— of  that 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS    OF   BUDDHISM.  297 

Divine  Body  which  was  once  a  suffering  Body,  a  cross-bearing 
Body,  and  is  now  a  glorified  Body,  an  ever-living,  life-giving 
Body.  Hence  it  teaches  us  to  honor  and  revere  the  human 
body  ;  nay,  almost  to  deify  the  human  body. 

"  A  Buddhist,  on  the  other  hand,  treats  every  kind  of  body 
with  contempt,  and  repudiates  as  a  simple  impossibility,  all 
idea  of  being  a  member  of  the  Buddha's  body.  How  could  a 
Buddhist  be  a  member  of  a  body  which  was  burnt  to  ashes — 
which  was  calcined, — which  became  extinct  at  the  moment 
when  the  Buddha's  whole  personality  became  extinguished 
also?" 

Here  we  have  a  new  Christology  and  a  new  Chris- 
tian dogma  which  demands  Christians  "  almost  to 
deify  the  human  body."  The  passage  to  which  Pro- 
fessor Williams  refers  (I.  Cer.  vi.,  15-20)  cannot  be 
interpreted  in  the  sense  that  Christians  "  are  members 
of  Christ's  body — of  His  flesh  and  of  His  bones." 
For  in  that  very  passage  we  read  : 

"  He  that  is  joined  unto  the  Lord  is  one  spirit." 

Further  says  Paul : 

"  O  wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall  deliver  me  from  the 
body  of  this  death."  (Rom.  vii.  24.) 

The  New  Testament  treats  the  body  as  forfeited 
to  death ;  and  there  is  certainly  truth  in  this  view, 
although  it  has  been  wrongly  interpreted  in  Chris- 
tian asceticism  and  monkish  morality.  As  to  Bud- 
dha, it  is  well  known  that  while  he  did  not  seek  the 
pleasures  of  the  body,  he  spurned  asceticism  as  a 
wrong  method  of  seeking  salvation.  Whenever 
Buddhists  retained  mortifications  they  did  so  in  vio- 
lation of  the  most  unequivocal  injunctions  and  of 
the  historically  best  assured  traditions  of  Buddha's 


298      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

Dharma.  As  to  "  the  Body  of  Buddha,"  Professor 
Williams  overlooks  here  the  well-known  Buddhist 
doctrine  that  Buddha's  body  is  the  Dharma.  When 
Buddha  died,  his  bodily  life  was  dissolved  into  non- 
existence,  but  not  his  doctrine.  His  individuality  was 
gone,  but  not  the  enlightenment  of  his  Buddhahood. 
We  read  in  "The  Book  of  the  Great  Decease" 
(Chap.  VI,  1): 

"  Now  the  Blessed  One  addressed  the  venerable  Ananda,  and 
said  :  '  It  may  be,  Ananda,  that  in  some  of  you  the  thought 
may  arise,  "The  word  of  the  Master  is  ended,  we  have  no 
teacher  more  ! "  But  it  is  not  thus,  -tinanda,  that  you  should 
regard  it.  The  truths  and  the  rules  of  the  order  which  I  have 
set  forth  and  laid  down  for  jou  all,  let  them,  after  I  am  gone, 
be  the  Teacher  to  you.'  " 

Further  Professor  Williams  says : 

"  The  Buddha  had  no  idea  of  sin  as  an  offence  against  God 
(p.  546).  Nor  did  the  Buddha  ever  claim  to  be  a  deliverer 
from  guilt,  a  purger  from  the  taints  of  past  pollution.  .  .  . 
On  the  contrary,  by  his  doctrine  of  Karma  he  bound  a  man 
hand  and  foot  to  the  inevitable  consequence  of  his  own  evil 
actions  with  chains  of  adamant.  He  said,  in  effect,  to  every 
one  of  his  disciples,  '  You  are  in  slavery  to  a  tyrant  of  your 
own  setting  up ;  your  own  deeds,  words,  and  thoughts  in  your 
present  and  former  states  of  being,  are  your  own  avengers 
through  a  countless  series  of  existences. 

"  'If  you  have  been  a  murderer,  a  thief,  a  liar,  impure,  a 
drunkard,  you  must  pay  the  penalty  in  your  next  birth  .  .  . 
your  doom  is  sealed.  Not  in  the  heavens,  O  man,  not  in  the 
midst  of  the  sea,  not  if  thou  hidest  thyself  in  the  clefts  of  the 
mountains,  wilt  thou  find  a  place  where  thou  canst  escape 
the  force  of  thine  own  evil  actions.  Thy  only  hope  of  salva- 
tion is  in  thyself.  Neither  god  nor  man  can  save  thee,  and  I 
am  wholly  powerless  to  set  thee  free.'  " 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS    OF    BUDDHISM.  299 

Buddha  teaches  that  the  evil  consequences  of 
error,  sin,  and  wrongdoing  cannot  be  escaped ;  but 
evil  deeds  can  be  covered  by  good  deeds.  The  pas- 
sage to  which  Professor  Williams  refers  is  incomplete 
without  its  counter-truth,  that  good  deeds,  too,  will 
not  fail  to  bear  good  fruits.  Buddha  teaches  : 

"  As  the  welcome  of  kinsfolk  and  friends  awaits  him  who 
has  been  abroad  and  is  now  returning  in  safety  :  so  the  fruits 
of  his  good  works  greet  the  man  who  has  walked  in  the  path 
of  righteousness  when  he  passes  over  from  the  present  life 
into  the  hereafter." 

To  quote  the  one  without  the  other  would  be  the 
same  as  if  some  one  cited  from  the  Kew  Testament 
the  words,  "He  who  does  not  believe  shall  be 
damned,"  and  forgets  to  add  the  counter  proposi- 
tion, "  He  who  believes  shall  be  saved." 

In  Professor  Williams's  opinion,  Christianity  is 
superior  to  Buddhism,  because  it  is  said  actually  to 
relieve  the  believer  from  the  consequences  of  sin. 
He  continues : 

"And  now,  contrast  the  few  brief  words  of  Christ  in  his 
first  recorded  sermon.  •  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  Me, 
because  He  hath  anointed  Me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the 
poor  ;  He  hath  sent  Me  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives,  and 
recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  and  the  opening  of  the  prison 
to  them  that  are  bound.'  " 

Buddha  would  never  have  said,  "  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  is  upon  me,"  (which  is  a  peculiarly  Hebrew 
expression),  and  it  is  very  improbable  that  Christ 
would  ever  have  thought  of  saying  anything  like  it. 


300      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

As  to  the  substance  of  tins  proclamation,  Professor 
Williams  will  be  aware  that  both  Buddha  and 
Christ  promised  to  give  liberty  to  the  captives,  the 
recovery  of  sight  to  the  blind,  and  the  faculty  of 
comprehension  to  the  deaf. 
Professor  Williams  sums  up : 

"  Yes,  in  Christ  alone  there  is  deliverance  from  the  bondage 
of  former  transgressions,  from  the  prison-house  of  former 
sins  :  a  total  cancelling  of  the  past  ;  a  complete  blotting-out 
of  the  handwriting  that  is  against  us  ;  an  entire  washing  away 
of  every  guilty  stain  ;  the  opening  of  a  clear  course  for  every 
man  to  start  afresh ;  the  free  gift  of  pardon  and  of  life  to 
every  criminal,  to  every  sinner — even  the  most  heinous  and 
inveterate." 

Captain  C.  Pfoundes,  a  resident  of  Japan,  who 
has  made  a  study  of  Japanese  Buddhism,  says  on 
the  subject  of  the  doctrine  of  atonement,  viewing  it 
from  a  purely  practical  standpoint : 

''It  is  all  too  true,  and  more  the  pity  it  is  that  it  is  so, 
that  the  converts  (nominal)  to  Christianity  are  largely  natives 
whose  conduct  is  such  that  by  the  general  opinion  of  foreign  res- 
idents such  converts  are  not  the  most  desirable  class  to  employ. 
The  true  Buddhist  has  ever  in  mind  the  fear  of  punishment 
hereafter  for  misdeeds,  not  to  be  lightly  atoned  for.  'The 
naughty  little  boy  who  is  always  ready  to  say  he  "  is  sorry,"  if 
he  is  assured  that  this  will  obtain  forgiveness,'  has  no  counter 
part  in  true  Buddhism  ;  and  the  too  easily  purchased  pardon  of 
Christian  mission  teaching  is  viewed  as  a  danger,  from  the 
ethical  standpoint,  by  the  educated  and  intelligent  Asiatic." 

If  the  essence  of  Christianity  consists  in  the  hope 
of  an  entire  washing  away  of  every  guilty  stain  and 
getting  rid  of  the  consequences  of  our  evil  deeds,  we 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS    OF    BUDDHISM.  301 

can  only  hope  that  the  civilized  nations  of  mankind 
will  abandon  Christianity.  Buddha's  doctrine  is  cer- 
tainly grander  and,  what  is  more,  truer  than  this 
hollow  doctrine  of  a  salvation  of  tho  guilty  by  the 
death  of  the  innocent.  Buddha,  when  speaking  of 
sacrifices,  rejected  the  idea  that  blood  can  wash  away 
sins,  and  when  he  regarded  himself  as  the  saviour 
of  man,  he  meant  that  he  was  their  teacher.  He 
claimed  to  have  pointed  out  the  way  of  salvation 
and  to  have  removed  the  cataract  from  the  eyes  of 
the  blind,  but  he  expects  every  one  of  his  followers 
to  exert  himself  when  walking  on  the  path. 

A  man  converted  from  sin  is  saved  in  the  sense 
that  henceforth  he  will  walk  in  the  right  direction  ; 
his  character  is  changed ;  he  turns  over  a  new  leaf, 
but  he  cannot  annihilate  the  past  and  the  conse- 
quences of  his  former  karma. 

The  dogma  of  the  vicarious  atonement  through 
Christ's  death  is  a  survival  of  the  age  of  barbarism  ; 
for  it  is  based  upon  the  savage's  idea  of  religion 
which  represents  God  as  an  Apache  chieftain  who, 
when  offended,  thirsts  for  the  death  of  somebody 
and  must  be  pacified  with  blood. 

He  who  believes  it  necessary  to  "  postulate  "  the 
existence  of  a  metaphysical  atman-God  in  addition 
to  the  real  God  whose  presence  appears  in  the  facts 
of  experience,  and  of  a  purusha-soul  in  addition  to 
the  psychic  realities  of  our  life,  will  naturally  regard 
the  extinction  of  the  illusion  of  "the  thought  I 
am]  "  (i.  e.,  the  error  of  the  existence  of  an  individ- 
ual ego-self)  and  of  an  individual  God-being,  as 


302      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

dreary  nihilism  and  "  morbid  pessimism."     Professor 
Williams  says : 

"  What  is  Buddhism  ?  If  it  were  possible  to  reply  to  the  in- 
quiry in  one  word,  one  might  perhaps  say  that  true  Buddhism, 
theoretically  stated,  is  Humanitariamsm,  meaning  by  that 
term  something  very  like  the  gospel  of  humanity  preached  by 
the  Positivist,  whose  doctrine  is  the  elevation  of  man  through 
man — that  is,  through  human  intellects,  human  intuitions, 
human  teaching,  human  experiences,  and  accumulated  human 
efforts — to  the  highest  ideal  of  perfection  ;  and  yet  something 
very  different.  For  the  Buddhist  ideal  differs  toto  ccelo  from 
the  Positivist's,  and  consists  in  the  renunciation  of  all  personal 
existence,  even  to  the  extinction  of  humanity  itself.  The 
Buddhist's  perfection  is  destruction." 

The  Buddhist  perfection  consists  in  the  complete 
surrender  of  the  illusion  of  an  ego-self ;  and  Profes- 
sor Williams  meant  to  say  that  the  Buddhist's  per- 
fection should,  from  his  standpoint  of  a  believer  in 
an  ego-self,  be  regarded  as  tantamount  to  destruc- 
tion ;  for  he  knows  very  well,  and  happily  says  it 
too,  that  it  is  not  so.  But  so  little  does  Professor 
Williams  understand  the  positivism  of  Buddha's 
doctrine,  that  he  regards  Buddha  as  inconsistent, 
because,  instead  of  proclaiming  the  ideal  of  destruc- 
tion, or  surrendering  himself  to  quietism,  Buddha 
rouses  himself  and  his  followers  to  energetic  work 
and  sympathetic  usefulness. 

Professor  Williams  says : 

"  In  fact  it  was  characteristic  of  a  supreme  Buddha  that  he 
should  belie,  by  his  own  activity  and  compassionate  feelings, 
the  utter  apathy  and  indifference  to  which  his  own  doctrines 
logically  led." 


CHRISTIAN    CRITICS    OP    BUDDHISM.  303 

According  to  my  comprehension  of  Buddhism, 
Buddha  need  not  in  his  ethics  belie  his  own  doctrines  ; 
for  his  ethics  are  an  immediate  consequence  of  his 
doctrines.  Should  not  Professor  Williams  first  sus- 
pect his  conception  of  Buddhism,  before  he  imputes 
to  so  profound  and  clear  a  thinker,  as  Buddha  un- 
questionably was,  a  gross  inconsistency  on  the  main 
issues  of  his  religion  ? 

A  few  days  ago  I  received  a  booklet  entitled  Hap- 
piness, which  is  a  comparison  of  Christianity  with 
Buddhism  from  a  Buddhist  standpoint.  It  is  osten- 
sibly written  by  a  Buddhist  who  presents  a  friend 
and  co-religionist  with  the  impressions  he  receives 
during  a  sojourn  in  England.  In  spite  of  its  crude 
make-up  the  booklet  is  cleverly  designed  and  makes 
some  good  points  which  are  decided  hits  on  a  literal 
belief  in  dogmatic  Christianity.  Salvation  is  defined 
by  this  Buddhist  author  as  "  The  destruction  of  ego 
or  of  the  misery  of  existence."  He  adds  :  "  I  find 
that  they  [the  Christians]  always  think  we  mean 
the  destruction  of  existence  itself  and  not  of  the 
misery."  Concerning  the  Christian  idea  of  salvation 
he  says:  "They  imagine  they  go  to  their  heaven, 
ego  and  all :  throwing  their  blackest  sins  on  the 
shoulders  of  their  God." 

The  Buddhist  and  Christian  conceptions  of  reli- 
gion are  contrasted  as  follows  : 

"  Ours.  Destruction  of  Ego  by  knowledge,  gratitude,  and 
love  ;  the  practice  of  which  is  intense  happiness. 

"  Theirs  is  more  the  worship  of  God,  chiefly  for  the  forgive- 
ness of  sin,  as  if  such  forgiveness  were  possible,  without  suffer- 
ing ;  whilst  ours  is  the  destruction  of  the  evil  itself." 


304      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHJR1STIAN   CRITICS. 

When  speaking  about  the  doctrine  of  atonement, 
our  Buddhist  author  says  : 

"This  strange  idea  arises  I  think  from  their  notion  of  a 
despotic  and  capricious  God,  who  forgives  or  condemns  in  a 
moment  without  reason,  yet,  at  the  same  time,  with  this  un- 
merciful God  there  is  no  forgiveness— the  debt  of  sin  must  be 
paid  with  innocent  blood,  though  it  involve  the  sacrifice  of  his 
own  innocent  son. " 

Several  paragraphs  are  devoted  to  prayer  which 
with  Buddhists  is  "  contemplation  and  self-examina- 
tion." Speaking  of  the  Lord's  prayer  our  Buddhist 
critic  says : 

"  You  would  think  Him  [the  God  of  the  Christians]  an  in- 
competent being,  when  they  set  Him  a  good  example — '  For- 
give us  ...  as  we  forgive.'  But  if  He  followed  their 
example  He  would  rarely  forgive  them. 

"  Again,  you  would  say  they  were  praying  to  some  evil 
spirit,  when  they  beg  him  not  to  lead  them  into  temptation." 

The  Buddhist  and  Christian  conceptions  of  Hell 
are  tersely  condensed  in  these  statements  : 

"  Ours.  The  effect  of  obedience  to  Ego,  here  and  hereafter, 
while  it  lasts. 

"  Their  Hell  is  like  their  Heaven,  a  place — not  a  state — where 
the  identical  earthly  bodies  of  nearly  all  humanity  will  be 
tormented  in  actual  fire  for  ever ;  to  no  purpose,  except  to 
satisfy  the  vindictiveness  of  their  Creator,  whom  they  call 
the  '  God  of  Love.' 

"They  do  not  see  that  it  is  the  Ego  that  tortures,  and  not 
God;  that  he  cannot  torture,  and  has  no  Hell." 

These  quotations  show  how  easily  a  religion  is 
misrepresented,  but  we  are  sorry  to  say  that  the 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  305 

great  mass  of  Christians  justify  the  above  criticism 
by  actually  believing  in  the  letter  of  their  dogmas. 
We  trust  that  there  is  a  nobler  Christianity  than 
Christian  dogmatism,  but  Sir  Monier  Monier- Wil- 
liams regards  the  belief  in  the  atonement  of  sin  by 
the  innocent  blood  of  Christ,  the  efficacy  of  real 
prayer,  the  reality  of  an  ego-soul,  and  the  existence 
of  a  personal  and  miracle-working  God-Creator,  as 
the  essence  of  Christianity. 

In  a  summary  of  his  comparison  of  Christianity 
with  Buddhism,  Professor  Williams  says : 

"Buddhism,  I  repeat,  says:  Act  righteously  through  your 
own  efforts,  and  for  the  final  getting  rid  of  all  suffering,  of  all 
individuality,  of  all  life  in  yourselves.  Christianity  says  :  Be 
righteous  through  a  power  implanted  in  you  from  above, 
through  the  power  of  a  life-giving  principle,  freely  given  to 
you,  and  always  abiding  in  you.  The  Buddha  said  to  his  fol- 
lowers :  'Take  nothing  from  me,  trust  to  yourselves  alone.' 
Christ  said :  '  Take  all  from  Me  ;  trust  not  to  yourselves.  I 
give  unto  you  eternal  life,  I  give  unto  you  the  bread  of  heaven, 
I  give  unto  you  living  water.'  Not  that  these  priceless  gifts 
involve  any  passive  condition  of  inaction.  On  the  contrary, 
they  stir  the  soul  of  the  recipient  with  a  living  energy.  They 
stimulate  him  to  noble  deeds  and  self-sacrificing  efforts.  They 
compel  him  to  act  as  the  worthy,  grateful,  and  appreciative 
possessor  of  so  inestimable  a  treasure. 

"  Still,  I  seem  to  hear  some  one  say  :  We  acknowledge  this  ; 
we  admit  the  truth  of  what  you  have  stated ;  nevertheless, 
for  all  that,  you  must  allow  that  Buddhism  conferred  a  great 
benefit  on  India  by  encouraging  freedom  of  thought  and  by 
setting  at  liberty  its  teeming  population,  before  entangled  in 
the  meshes  of  ceremonial  observances  and  Brahmanical  priest- 
craft. 

"Yes,  I  grant  this:  nay,  I  grant  even  more  than  this.  I 
admit  that  Buddhism  conferred  many  other  benefits  on  the 
20 


306      BUDDHISM  AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN    CRITICS. 

millions  inhabiting  the  most  populous  part  of  Asia.  It  intro- 
duced education  and  culture;  it  encouraged  literature  and 
art ;  it  promoted  physical,  moral,  and  intellectual  progress  up 
to  a  certain  point ;  it  proclaimed  peace,  good  will,  and  brother- 
hood among  men ;  it  deprecated  war  between  nation  and 
nation  ;  it  avowed  sympathy  with  social  liberty  and  freedom  ; 
it  gave  back  much  independence  to  women;  it  preached 
purity  in  thought,  word,  and  deed  (though  only  for  the  accu- 
mulation of  merit) ;  it  taught  self-denial  without  self-torture  ; 
it  inculcated  generosity,  charity,  tolerance,  love,  self-sacrifice, 
and  benevolence,  even  towards  the  inferior  animals  ;  it  ad- 
vocated respect  for  life  and  compassion  towards  all  creatures  ; 
it  forbade  avarice  and  the  hoarding  of  money  ;  and  from  its 
declaration  that  a  man's  future  depended  on  his  present  acts 
and  condition,  it  did  good  service  for  a  time  in  preventing 
stagnation,  stimulating  exertion,  promoting  good  works  of  all 
kinds,  and  elevating  the  character  of  humanity." 

If  Professor  Williams's  conception  of  Christianity 
must  be  accepted  as  true  Christianity,  Christianity 
will  pass  away  to  make  room  for  Buddhism.  Hap- 
pily, Christianity  is  a  living  religion,  that,  having 
passed  through  the  stage  of  metaphysical  dogma- 
tism, is  still  possessed  of  the  power  of  regeneration, 
so  as  to  approach  more  and  more — though  progress 
is  sometimes  slow — the  ideal  of  a  genuine  catho- 
licity. Those  features  which  Professor  Williams 
regards  as  the  essential  grandeur  of  Christianity, 
are  a  most  serious  defect ;  and  their  absence  in 
Buddhism  indicates  that  it  is  the  more  advanced 
religion.  That  religion  only  which  has  overcome 
the  pagan  notions  of  a  special  revelation,  of  atone- 
ment through  blood,  of  wiping  out  the  past,  of  the 
miraculous  power  of  prayer,  of  the  ego-conscious- 
ness as  a  kind  of  thing-in-itself,  and  of  a  creation 


CHRISTIAN   CRITICS   OF   BUDDHISM.  307 

out  of  nothing  by  a  God-magician,  can  eventually 
become  the  religion  of  mankind. 

For  myself,  I  must  confess  that  I  never  felt  more 
like  a  true  Buddhist  than  after  a  perusal  of  Pro- 
fessor Williams's  description  of  Buddhism  ;  for  I 
am  now  more  firmly  convinced  than  ever,  that  our 
Church-Christianity  can  only  become  a  scientifically 
true  and  logically  sound  religion  of  cosmic  and  uni- 
versal significance,  by  being  transformed  into  that 
Buddhism  which  Professor  Williams  refuses  to 
regard  "  as  a  religion  in  the  proper  sense  of  the 
word." 

Did  you  never  read  in  the  Scriptures,  "  The  stone 
which  the  builders  rejected,  the  same  has  become 
the  head  of  the  corner  "  ? 


CONCLUSION. 

BUDDHA'S  religion  appears  valuable  for  three  rea- 
sons. 

1.  It  is  the  religion  of  enlightenment..    Buddha's 
principle  of  acquiring  truth  is  to  rely  upon  the  best 
and  most  accurate  methods  man  can  find  for  inves- 
tigating the  truth.     In  his  dying  hour  he  urged  his 
disciples  to  rely  upon  their  own  efforts  in  finding  the 
truth,  not  upon  the  Yedas,  not  upon  the  authority 
of  others,  not  even  upon  Buddha  himself,  and  he 
added  :  "  Hold  fast  to  the  truth  as  a  lamp." 

2.  Buddha  anticipated  even  in  important  details  the 
results  of  a  scientific  soul-conception.     He  rejected 
the  Brahman  theory  of  soul-migration  and  explained 
man's  continuance  beyond  death  as  a  rebirth  or  re- 
incarnation, a  reappearance  of  the  same  soul-form. 
This  is  based  on  the  doctrine  that  man's  psychic 
nature  is  not  a  substance  or  entity,  not  an  atman 
or  self,  but  consists  of  karma ;  it  is  the  product  of 
deeds,  a  form  of  activity  conditioned  by  the  pre- 
servation or  transference  of  the  memory  of  former 
actions.     Nor  did  Buddha  shun  the  unpopularity  to 
which  his  message  to  the  world  was  exposed,  be- 

308 


CONCLUSION.  309 

cause  liable  to  be  misrepresented  as  a  "  psychology 
without  a  soul." 

3.  While  he  was  bold  and  outspoken  in  his  nega- 
tion, he  proclaimed  at  the  same  time,  the  positive 
consequences  of  his  philosophy.  The  negation  of 
the  atman-soul  shows  the  vanity  of  man's  hankering 
after  enjoyment,  be  it  in  this  world  or  in  a  heaven 
beyond,  and  Buddha  taught  that  by  cutting  off  the 
yearning  for  a  heaven  in  any  form,  be  it  on  earth 
or  beyond  the  clouds,  man  will  annihilate  those  con- 
ditions which  produce  the  hell  ot  life.  When  the 
idea  of  an  independent  self  is  done  away  with,  when 
we  understand  that  man's  character  is  the  form  of 
his  being  as  shaped  by,  and  finding  expression  in, 
deeds,  and  finally,  when  we  learn  that  according  to 
our  deeds  this  form  continues  in  the  further  develop- 
ment of  life,  bearing  fruit  according  to  the  nature 
of  our  deeds,  the  irrationality  of  all  hatred,  envy, 
and  malevolence  becomes  apparent,  and  room  is  left 
only  for  the  aspirations  of  an  unbounded  and  helpful 
sympathy  with  all  evolution  of  life. 

Buddha  is,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  first  prophet 
who  proclaimed  the  paramount  importance  of  mo- 
rality in  religion.  At  the  same  time  he  is  the  first 
positivist,  the  first  humanitarian,  the  first  radical 
freethinker,  the  first  iconoclast,  and  the  first  prophet 
of  the  Religion  of  Science.  The  more  we  become 
acquainted  with  the  original  writings  of  Buddhism, 
the  more  are  we  impressed  with  the  greatness  of 
Buddha's  far-seeing  comprehension  of  both  the 
problems  of  religion  and  psychology.  To  be  sure, 


310      BUDDHISM   AND   ITS   CHRISTIAN   CRITICS. 

he  had  not  the  same  scientific  material  at  his  dis- 
posal that  we  have  to-day,  but  the  fundamental 
problems  in  philosophy,  psychology,  and  religion, 
are  much  simpler  than  our  philosophers  would  make 
us  believe.  Buddha  saw  in  great  outlines  the  solu- 
tion of  the  religious  problem,  and  pronounced  boldly 
a  religion  which  stood  in  contradiction  to  all  that 
which  by  Brahmans  was  considered  as  most  essential 
to  religion.  In  a  word,  he  pronounced  a  religion 
based  upon  facts  which  should  replace  a  religion 
based  upon  the  assumptions  of  belief. 

Many  Buddhist  doctrines,  especially  some  of 
the  most  salient  moral  maxims,  have  reappeared  in 
Christianity,  where  they  assumed  a  less  abstract  and 
more  concrete  shape,  so  as  to  appeal  more  directly 
to  the  energetic  races  of  the  North. 

Christianity  has  been  to  Europe  what  Buddhism 
has  been  to  Asia,  and  the  analogies  in  the  history 
of  both  religions,  especially  the  evolution  of  sects, 
the  development  of  ritual  and  religious  art,  and  the 
various  deviations  finding  expression  in  superstitious 
practices,  priestly  pretensions,  and  dogmatic  vaga- 
ries, are  most  interesting  and  instructive. 

For  the  sake  of  purifying  our  conception  of  religion, 
there  is  no  better  method  than  a  study  of  com- 
parative religion  ;  and  in  comparative  religion  there 
is  nothing  more  fruitful  than  a  tracing  of  the  analo- 
gies and  contrasts  that  obtain  between  Buddhism 
and  Christianity. 


INDEX. 


Abhidharma,  The,  196. 

Action  and  non-action,  158. 

Adrishta,  16. 

Advaita,  16,  92. 

^Esopean  fables.  206. 

Akamatsu,  A.,  278. 

America.  125. 

Amida,  200. 

Amita,  34. 

Amitabha,  268. 

Ananda,  42,  67,  289. 

Annihilation.  53,  65,  76,  79,  159. 

Antiochus,  202,  203. 

Apavarga,  20, 

Apollonius  of  Tyana,  225,  226. 

Apollos,  225. 

Arhat,  149. 

Ariovistus,  218. 

Art.  Buddhistic,  198. 

Arupam,  50,  55. 

Arupo,  49. 

Asceticism.  21,  24,  222. 

Ashoka,  263 ;  his  rock  inscrip- 
tions, 201. 

Ashvaghosha,  174,  footnote ; 
176,  footnote  ;  177,  footnote  ; 
179,  footnote  ;  180,  footnote  ; 
181,  footnote  ;  183,  184  ;  194, 
footnote. 

Asita,  174. 

Astral  body,  25. 

Atheism,  30,  196,  197. 

Atman,  25,  42,  44,  45,  46,  52,  84, 
97,  100,  128,  132,  160. 

Atman-God,  301. 


B. 

Baker,  Rev.  W.  M.,  188,  189. 

Baptism,  193,  194. 

Beal,  Prof.  Samuel,  201,  202. 

Belief,  292. 

Belligerent  spirit,  192. 

Ben  fey,  129. 

Bhagavadgita,  94. 

Bhikshu,  259. 

Bhikshuni,  259. 

Bigandet,  Bishop,  166. 

Bliss  not  happiness,  7  ;  surrender 

of  self  is,  110. 
Bodhi,  48. 
Body,  39,  297. 
Bohme,  121. 
Boniface,  239. 
Brahma,  14,  29. 
Brahmanism,  14. 
Brahmans,  180. 
Buddha  the  moral  law,  79  ;  his 

personality,  54  ;  also,  115. 
Buddhaghosa,  35,  footnote  ;  45, 

51,  171. 

Buddhaghosa's  Parables,  183. 
Buddhism  teaches   a  belief   in 

God,  196. 
Buhler,  204. 

C. 

Cana,  marriage  at,  178. 
Candlin,  Rev.  George  T.,  248. 
Catholic,  235. 
Ceylon,  244. 
Chandragupta,  202. 
Changes,  228. 

311 


312 


INDEX. 


Charvakas,  18. 

Che,  252. 

Childers,  147,  148,  149. 

Chinese  placard,  250. 

Christ,  48,  107,  115. 

Christianity,  strength  of,  8 ; 
advantages  of,  6  ;  Pre-Chris- 
tian, 225. 

Christians,  144. 

Christmas,  240. 

Chunda,  288,  289. 

Church,  192. 

Clifford,  132. 

Columbus,  125. 

Comforter,  187. 

Comparative  religion,  311. 

Comte,  August,  99. 

Confucius,  249,  262.  271,  272. 

Cowell,  E.  B.,  177,  footnote. 

D. 

Darsanas,  15. 

Davids,  Rhys,  27,  footnote  ;  35, 
footnote;  138.  139,  140,  141, 
142,  147,  165,  195,  206. 

Death,  26,  42. 

Deathless,  46.  49,  56. 

Deliverance,  21. 

De  Eerum  Natura,  97,  footnote. 

Devadatta.  274. 

Dhammapada,  135,  136, 153,  163. 

Dharraa,  38. 

Dharmapala,  60. 

Dharmaraja,  173,  208. 

Disciples,  225. 

Doketistic  heresy,  194. 

Don  Quixote,  33. 

Du  Bose,  Rev.  Hampden  C.,  166, 
245,  247. 

Dust,  161. 

E. 

Ecce  ego,  115. 

Ego,  66,  67,  73,  294. 

Egocentric  psychology,  64. 

Ego-illusion,  101,  109. 

Ego-soul.  58,  131. 

Eightfold  path,  35,  37,  77,  81. 

Empire  of  Truth,  37. 


Enlightenment,  27,  48,  77,  149. 

308. 

Essene  movement.  208. 
Essenes,  215,  219U  220. 
Evil,  problem  of,  13 ;    root  of, 

24,  27. 
Evolution,  25,  63,64  ;  in  religion, 


F. 

Fable,  212. 
Faust,  108, 122,  277. 
Fig-tree,  185. 
Forms-in-themselves,  51. 

G. 

Gabet,  167. 

Garbe,  220. 

Gassner,  261. 

Gauss,  71. 

Gautama  Siddhartha,  23,  25,  28. 

41,  150,  207,  226.  227,  283. 
Geocentric  astronomy,  64. 
Gladstone,  96. 
Gnosticism,  220. 
God,  89,  111,  112,  170,  197,  293; 

Buddhism  teaches  a  belief 

in,  196. 

God-incarnation,  78. 
God-man,  78. 

Goethe,  56,  98-115,  119,  277. 
Gondoforus,  201. 
Gospel,  173. 
Grace,  time  of,  174. 
Gregory  the  Great,  238,  239. 
Guest,  161. 
Gunas,  21. 
Gutzlaff,  Charles,  271,  272,  273, 

274,  275,  276. 

H. 

Halley,  124,  125. 
Hardwood,  parable  of  the,  82. 
Hardy,  R.  Spence,  263,  264,  265; 
267,  268,  269,  270,  279. 


INDEX. 


313 


Heaven,  8,  78,  155. 

Hegeler,  58. 

Hell,  304. 

Herod's  massacre,  172. 

Hinayana,  146,  230, 231,  232,  233, 

236. 

Hooke,  123,  124,  125. 
Hue,  130,  167. 
Humanitarianism,  302. 


I. 


I.  86,  87,  101,  102. 
Idolatry,  244. 
Illegitimate  questions,  41. 
Illusion,  302  ;  of  self,  163. 
Immortality,  27,  96.  107,  127. 
Inward  light,  the,  122. 
Irreligious,  Buddha,  not,  29. 
Irony,  32. 
Isaiah,  171,  207. 
Ishvara,  29,  95,  195,  196. 

J. 

Jain  sect,  22. 

Jainism,  226. 

Jataka,  74. 

Jesus  Christ,  44,  261,  262. 

Jnyataputra,  226. 

John  the  Baptist,  178,  185. 

Judgment  of  Solomon,  213. 

Justinus  Martyr,  215  ;  footnote. 

K. 

Kanada,  16. 

Kant,  58,  295,  296  ;  his  thing-in- 

itself.  93. 

Kapila,  20,  21,  24,  25. 
Kapilavastu,  23. 
Karma,  19,  26,  45,  46,  93,  100, 

102,  104,  105,  131,  134,  138, 

139,  141,  142,  143,  144,  163, 

298,  301,  308. 

Khayyam,  Omar,  118,  119. 
Kingdom  of  righteousness,  34, 

176. 


Kisa  Gotami,  175,  206. 
Kouan-yin,  199. 
Krishna,  172,  180. 


Lassen,  220. 

Latitudinarianism,  228. 
Lau-tsze,  154,  216,  218,  221,  247. 

271,  272,  291. 
Lavater,  261. 
Leo  the  Great,  240. 
Letter,  Oldenbergs,  72. 
Lillie,  Arthur,  169. 
Living  waters,  181. 
Logos,  209 ;  footnote. 
Lokayatas,  18. 
Luther,  41,  44  ;  footnote. 

M. 

Magi,  174. 

Mahaparinibbana,  147. 
Mahasetu,  233,  236. 
Mahayana,  146,  230,  231,  232,233, 

236. 

Maitreya,  187,  195,  198,  207. 
Man  is  a  compound,  51. 
Manas,  16. 
Manitoo,  229. 
Mara,  38,  49,  56. 
Marriage  at  Cana.  178. 
Mary,  173,  175,  199. 
Matter,  20,  21. 
Maya,  48. 
Meadows,  272. 
Melioristic  morality,  224. 
Middle  path,  24,  36,  51,  52,  178. 
Migration,  73. 
Mind,  makes  or  mars,  223. 
Mind-stuff,  132. 
Miracles,  177. 
Missionaries,  6,  9,  130,  156,  166, 

167,  168,  240,  241.  242,  244, 

247. 

Missionary  hymn,  243. 
Missions,  advantage  of,  10,  237. 


314 


INDEX. 


Modern  psychology,  57,  62,  96, 

104.     ' 

Mohammed,  249,  262. 
Monism,  14,  93. 
Monks,  193. 
Miiller,  F.  Max,  30,  33,  136,  147, 

195,209,211,212,  214,  271. 
Murder  of  parents,  189. 

N. 

Napoleon,  116,  117,  118. 

Neo-Platonism,  220,  222. 

Nestorian  rituals,  169. 

Neumann,  82 ;  footnote. 

Newton,  123,  126. 

Nibbana,  148,  175. 

Nicodemus,  181. 

Night  of  Asia,  247. 

Nihilism,  59. 

Nirvana,  8,  19,  22,  28,  35,  36,  49, 
50,  53,  54,  56,  65,  75,  77,  79, 
81,  82,  109,  112,  145,  146, 
147,  148,  149,  152,  154,  155, 
156,  157,  160,  161,  163,  181, 
282. 

Nominalism,  52. 

Non-resistance,  191. 

Nothing,  218. 

Nothingness,  49,  119. 

Nyana,  16,  17. 

O. 


Oldenberg,  59,  60,  61,  62,  63,  64, 
65,  66,  67,  70,  71,  72,  73,  74, 
75,  81,  82,  134,  137,  162. 

Omar  Khayyam,  118,  119. 

O-mi-to-fu,  260,  275. 

Orthodox,  235. 

P. 

Pali,  Siamese,  274. 
Pantism,  16. 
Pantscha  Tantra,  129. 
Parables,  8. 
Parents,  murder  of,  189. 


Parinibbana,  147. 

Passerat,  218. 

Permanent  state,  161. 

Personality,  Buddha's,  54. 

Perusha,  16,  19. 

Perusha-soul,  301. 

Pessimism,  162. 

Pfoundes,  Captain  C.,  300. 

Pharisees,  180. 

Philo.  220. 

Philostratus,  226. 

Pilate,  173. 

Plato,  47,  48.  222. 

Plotinus,  220. 

Porphyry,  220. 

Postulates,  84,  95. 

Prajapati,  86,  88,  91,  220. 

Prayer,   The  Lord's,    294,    295, 

296,  304. 

Pre-Christian  Christianity,  225. 
Protestantism,  33. 
Pseudo-Matthew,  175. 
Psychology,  modern,  57,  62, 104. 
Pure  form,  47. 
Pythagoras,  48. 

R. 

Ramanuja,  95. 

Realism,  52. 

Rebirth,  26,  42,  46,  73,  75,  308. 

Red  Sea,  crossing  the,  194. 

Religion  of  Science,  113,  309. 

Repetition  of  prayers,  260. 

Rerum  Natura,  De,  97,  footnote. 

Rest,  161. 

Righteousness,  kingdom  of,  34, 

176. 

Romanism,  166. 
Rupa,  48. 


Sadducees,  106. 

Salt,  like  the,  182. 

Samkhya,  17,  19,  20,  22,  23,  24, 

92,  219,  221,  222. 
Samsara,  19,  50. 


INDEX. 


315 


Samskaras,  26,  134. 

Sangha,  192. 

Sankharas,  62,  63,  74,  76,  79. 

Schiller,  47,  48. 

Schlagintweit,  156,  157. 

Schopenhauer,  125,  135,  282. 

Science,  10,  265,  268. 

Self,  85-97,  128,  136,  138;  cul- 
ture of,  137  ;  extinction  of, 
146  ;  illusion  of,  27  ;  is  bliss, 
surrender  of,  110  ;  resigna- 
tion of,  115 ;  sacrifice  of, 
186  ;  surrender  of,  234  ;  van- 
ity of,  45. 

Selfhood.  28,  121,  234. 

Seydel,  Rudolf,  169. 

Shakyamuni,  59,  138,  141. 

Shaky  a-simha,  173. 

Shankara,  92,  94,  95. 

Shariputra,  53. 

Shinshiu,  33,  289. 

Simeon,  174. 

Similarities,  167,  171,  228. 

Sola  fide,  277. 

Solomon,  judgment  of,  213. 

Soul,  25,  58,  61,  62,  97,  134,  170. 

Soul-form,  75. 

Soul  or  mind,  133. 

Source  of  all  evil,  21. 

St.  Augustine,  233. 

St.  John,  171. 

St.  Josaphat,  195,  212. 

St.  Paul,  40,  55.  145,  194,  215, 
footnote,  220,  224,  238,  276. 

St.  Peter,  177. 

Strauss,  D.  Fr.,  283. 

Strength  of  Christianity,  8. 

Struggle,  ethics  of,  9. 

Suffering.  19. 

Suffering  One,  The,  7. 

Suicide,  81. 

Supernatural,  The,  228.  . 

Surrender  of  self  is  bliss,110,234. 

Survival  of  the  fittest,  11. 

T. 
Tanaka,  K.,  252. 


Tat  twam  asi,  135. 
Tathagata,  35. 
Tau,  217,  272. 
Tau-Teh-King,  154. 
Tauler,  121,  145. 
"Tee,"  167. 
Theism,  17. 
Therapeutse,  220. 
Thing-in-itself,  58,  59,  93. 
Thomas,  Adolph,  279,  283. 
Thorwaldsen,  199. 
Transmigration.  19,  26,  139. 
Trikaya,  196,  209. 
Trinity.  197,  199,  209. 
Truth,  10,  28,  37. 
Truths  are  real,  80. 
Truth,  Empire  of,  37. 
Tsang-tsze,  272. 
Tusita  Heaven,  48, 

U. 

Unification,  96,  103,  266,  279. 

Upaka,  27. 

Upanishads,  84,  89,  91,  96. 

V. 


Vacchagotta,  64.  66,  67,  68,  70. 
Vaisheshika,  16. 
Vardhamana.  22. 
Vedanta,  15,  92. 
Vedas,  15,  23.  29;  308. 
Voigt,  G.,  276,  277,  278. 
Vrihaspati,  18. 

W. 

Warren,  H.  C.,  40,  iootnote  •-  *, . 

footnote  ;  50,  foot^t*-  **i! 

footnote ;  172. 
Weber,  220. 

Wheel  of  becoming,  187, 
Williams,    Sir   Punier  il^«jrer, 

14,  footnote  ;  165,  footnote  ; 

284,  285,  286,  287,  288,  289, 

290,  292,  293,  296,  297,  298, 

299,  300,  302,  303,  305,  306, 

307. 


316 


INDEX. 


Wind,  182. 
Winfrid,  239. 
World-flight,  7,  223. 
Wound,  55. 

Y. 

Yamaka,  53,  65. 
Yashas,  181. 


Yoga,  18,  24. 
Yuletide,  240. 

Z. 

Zarathushtra,215,  footnote.  £ee 

Zoroaster.) 
Zenith,  229. 
Zoroaster,  249,  262.     (See  2ara 

thushtra.) 


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